James Gunn Explains Why 'Superhero Fatigue' Isn't Really Superhero Fatigue

James Gunn is acutely aware that superhero movies might not hold the same broad appeal they did only a couple of years ago. The filmmaker, who is now the co-chair of Warner Bros.' newly revamped DC Studios along with producer Peter Safran, is set to spearhead the creative direction of the company's film slate. However, due to the recent box office disappointments of both Marvel and DC properties, Gunn's got a lot of pressure to resurrect what may be a dying genre.

Superheroes have been going strong for more than a decade. Marvel Studios has turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) into a cultural juggernaut, releasing some of the highest-grossing films of all time and popularizing the concept of a shared series of spin-off films. Though not as critically successful, DC Films has also pulled in big box office numbers over the years, forming its own universe previously known as the DC Extended Universe. 

Considering both Warner Bros.' "The Batman" (which is unaffiliated with the DCEU) and every MCU film released in 2022 were among the top 10 highest-grossing films of that year, it might be too early to herald the end of the superhero movie. Still, the under-performance of Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" doesn't fare too well for the longevity of the studio's post-"Avengers: Endgame" story plan. Coupled with the back-to-back financial losses of DC's "Black Adam" and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," it seems superhero cinema at large could stand to shake things up.

James Gunn sees the looming "superhero fatigue" as being due to the formulaic repetition of superhero stories and not of the superheroes themselves. In an interview with Rolling Stone, the filmmaker stated that:

"It doesn't have anything to do with superheroes. It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they're these incredible characters that we have in our hearts. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring."

He argued that it's not necessarily superhero films that audiences are growing tired of, but "spectacle films" and "the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story." That reasoning explains why the character-heavy blockbusters "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Avatar: The Way of Water" had so much appeal and ensuing success. As Gunn put it:

"If you don't have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that's very, very real."

Jame Gunn brought up his own contribution to the MCU, the highly successful "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, as examples of what he's trying to accomplish while working with DC Films. Instead of telling a standard superhero story, he sought to make "a space opera" and "a family drama," focusing on the emotional connection between a group of outcasts. Gunn stated that his inspiration was "Star Wars," which similarly changed the industry's approach to blockbuster filmmaking:

"I felt like movies were getting a little repetitive and you needed a science-fiction epic that was colorful and bright, what 'Star Wars' was to me when I was 11. Instead of a Chewbacca and a C-3PO, it was a talking tree and a gun-wielding raccoon. I felt like I was putting something out there that was going to work. Which doesn't mean that in the middle of shooting, I didn't wake up at 3 a.m. in a cold, sweaty panic."

Gunn is currently slated to direct "Superman: Legacy," which will focus on a young Superman growing up in Smallville and Metropolis and learning how to be the human Clark Kent. He assured people that it will be "quite different" than "Guardians," but his goal is to continue to concentrate on an emotional character arc first and foremost. In addition, his plans for the rest of the DC Films lineup, which feature characters like the morally dubious antiheroes of "The Authority" to the horror monsters of "Swamp Thing," also seem to refuse to stick to usual superhero trappings. The former director of Troma B-movies may yet prove that superhero movies aren't dead. They just need a fresh dose of soul.

Gunn's final "Guardians" film, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," hits theaters on May 5, 2023.