James Gunn directed three Guardians of the Galaxy films and The Suicide Squad, but Gunn draws a sharp line between what came before and what he’s doing now as co-head of DC Studios and director of the upcoming Superman film.
Gunn says that Superman is his first real superhero movie, explaining in an interview with GamesRadar+:
“In one way, though, it’s weird, because you say I’ve made superhero movies with Marvel, but I really didn’t. Guardians were space adventurers. They really weren’t superheroes.
“They didn’t have secret identities or masks or costumes, or they had superpowers, but they weren’t really superpowers. They were just the powers of wherever they were from.”
He makes a good point as The Guardians were cosmic misfits, not exactly spandex-wearing saviors in the traditional sense. Even The Suicide Squad was built around a bunch of criminals with sketchy moral compasses. Gunn adds:
“So I think that, really, in a lot of ways, this is my first superhero movie, because even the Suicide Squad were supervillains. So that brought in a bunch of challenges in itself. Because superheroes, everything I do comes from a place of, ‘Well, what if this was real?’
“You know, if I started telling the story of Rocket Raccoon, ‘What if Rocket Raccoon was real? How would he exist? Where would he come from?’ And with this, ‘What if Superman was real? What are his beliefs? What is his relationship with his girlfriend like? What is his relationship to the government like?’ So it really was coming from that place.”
I can see why Gunn believes that Superman is his first superhero film, and so far the first reactions have been mostly positive, and I’m excited about seeing it for myself.
Superman flies into theaters on July 11th.
