James Gunn Fires Back at DCU Critics Who Think Every Movie Needs to Build Toward a Massive Crossover
James Gunn has a message for DC fans who think every movie and TV show in the DC Universe needs to lead to some massive crossover event because sometimes a great story is enough.
With Clayface hitting theaters and Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon, fans have been comparing the two superhero franchises and questioning where Gunn and Peter Safran are taking the DCU.
The conversation kicked off when a fan pointed to several DC projects, including Superman, Peacemaker, Supergirl, Creature Commandos, Clayface, and Lanterns, before asking, "What’s this building towards??????"
Another Threads user, lostuslandcomics, offered a different perspective, writing, "Gunn doesn’t have to build towards anything if the individual pieces work on their own…I think the MCU reprogrammed people’s expectations."
Gunn spotted the exchange and jumped in to explain why he doesn't think every DCU project needs to justify its existence by teasing the next big superhero team-up.
He also made it clear that the DCU will have plenty of connections between its stories. They just won't all revolve around one giant event.
Here's Gunn's full response: “I couldn’t agree more. DCU is just an alternate universe; we can enter at any location or time and tell THAT story. I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else.
“People not understanding this is strange to me, because Star Wars has essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games and books, admittedly without the tonal variety. Now, this doesn’t mean there isn’t connectivity.
“The Superman Saga starts with Superman and travels into Man of Tomorrow and onward, and contains many characters we’ve introduced in other stories. But that doesn’t mean those other stories only exist to set up what’s happening there.
“I would love people to be seeing Clayface because it’s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now.”
It's a pretty reasonable approach, especially considering how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shaped audience expectations over the years. Marvel turned interconnected storytelling into a massive success, but that doesn't mean DC Studios needs to follow the same formula.
Gunn's comparison to Star Wars makes sense. That franchise has spent decades telling stories involving different characters, eras, and corners of its universe. Some connect directly, while others work perfectly well on their own.
The DCU can work the same way, with Superman's story continuing into Man of Tomorrow while projects like Clayface explore completely different genres. A horror movie about one of Batman's most tragic villains shouldn't need a Justice League appearance to make it worth watching.
What I like about Gunn's thinking is that it gives filmmakers more freedom to tell the stories they actually want to tell without forcing everything into a larger franchise roadmap. There's still room for returning characters, shared storylines, and major crossovers, but those things shouldn't be the only reason audiences care about a project.
Personally, I'd rather watch a great standalone DC movie than one that spends half its runtime reminding me about five other movies I need to see.
What do you think? Should James Gunn's DCU focus on telling great individual stories, or do you want to see everything eventually come together in a massive crossover event?