James Gunn Talks About the Difference Between Working with Marvel and DC

James Gunn has had the opportunity to work with both Marvel Studios and DC Entertainment and in an interview with The New York Times, the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad filmmaker talked about the big differences between working with the two studios. He explained:

"There's no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You don't have to take them and I don't always take them... The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, he's more spread out."

As far as DC, he explains that they have a less uniform approach to the films they make, commenting "that is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel." He goes on to explain that his work in the MCU is different to other Marvel filmmakers', "but not as different as Shazam! and Suicide Squad." He added, "I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something that's unique to the filmmakers. We're in a strange time, so anything can happen."

Gunn then talked about DC’s approach to opening the multiverse in the movies saying:

"I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, it's fun. They're starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. The fact that they did Joker, which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. I'm very excited about Matt's movie [The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves]. They're getting some really good filmmakers involved. They're always going to be hit or miss – I just don't want them to get boring."

No one wants them to be boring! Earlier this week, Gunn was asked about the state of superhero films, and in that interview he said that he thinks most of them are boring right now:

"They're mostly boring to me right now! [Laughs]. I loved them at the beginning and there are still people trying to do different things [with them], so it's not a 100% rule, but a lot of them are boring.”

Well, from what I’m hearing and seeing, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad isn’t going to be boring!