James Gunn May Have Pissed Off Warners Execs After DC Comments

It’s been revealed that James Gunn might have ended up angering or upsetting some pretty important executives over at Warner Bros Discovery after his DC Comics comments. So, let’s go into what happened and why some executives might be a bit annoyed with the co-CEO of DC Studios.

This all comes after Gunn announced his plan for the future of DC Studios. He ended up announcing a whole bunch of projects in what he called would be DC Studios’ Chapter One: Gods And Monsters.

He announced projects such as The Authority, Swamp Thing, The Brave And The Bold, Superman: Legacy, Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, Booster Gold, Creature Commandos, Lanterns, and Waller.

James Gunn may have pissed off Warners executives

Credit: Marvel Studios

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So, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s latest newsletter, Heat Vision, DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have reportedly already managed to ruffle some feathers with certain Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) executives due to their recent comments about the old DC regime.

Gunn and Safran insinuated that some of the people involved in the previous management of the DC universe were “not exactly tactful.” The report stated that some of those from the old regime are still now in charge at WBD, and the report added that “there have been quite a few ruffled feathers.”

The Hollywood Reporter described Gunn and Safran as “moviemakers” and “not corporate.” This is very different from Warners’ former executives who “either toe the company line, express generic and genial statements, or retweet praise”.

Gunn has been very different in his approach. He loves to go to Twitter to shoot down rumours and create fun Twitter polls for fans to participate in.

Speaking to journalists at the private DCU slate reveal event, Gunn criticised DC’s past as “pretty messed up” and noted how Warner Bros. was “giving away IP like they were party favours”. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

The history of DC is pretty messed up. No one was minding the mint. They were just giving away IP like they were party favors to any creators who smiled at them. What we are going to do is promise that everything from our first project going forward is going to be unified.

What did he say that annoyed the executives?

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Gunn also made a second comment which seemed to refer to DC’s past, and Gunn zoned in on his intent to avoid “putting hundreds of millions of dollars into a film where a screenplay is only two-thirds of the way done”. Here’s what he had to say on the matter:

We’re not going to be making movies and putting hundreds of millions of dollars into a film where a screenplay is only two-thirds of the way done and we have to finish it while we’re making the movie. I’ve seen it happen again and again, and it’s a mess. And I think it’s the primary reason in the deterioration of quality of films today versus 20-30 years ago.

All in all, I don’t think that Gunn and Safran are in any trouble with the top brass at Warner Bros Discovery. Why, you ask? Because many of the execs who would have been upset with Gunn’s comments would have been part of the old regime.

They might still be part of the company, technically, but the person who counts at the moment is Warner Bros Discovery’s CEO, David Zalsav, and he seems to want to shake the boat a bit and try new things. He was the one who appointed Gunn, after all.

What do you make of this news? Are you looking forward to seeing what James Gunn has in store for DC Studios? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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