When you are the common denominator of a problem, you may be the problem.
It has been a rocky first year for James Gunn’s official takeover as the head of the DC Universe after he was hired by David Zaslav in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. When James Gunn was given the keys to the kingdom, it was believed that he would be ending the film universe started by Zack Snyder with Man of Steel and instituting his vision moving forward. At one point, he even said, “The Flash resets the entire DCU universe.”
However, fans were still left in an awkward position of figuring out what was going to happen with their favorite superhero actors. Before James Gunn was put in charge of DC, there were many questions regarding the future of Henry Cavill as Superman.
Six days before Gunn and Safran officially assumed their roles at DC Studios on November 1st, Cavill said in an interview that he was looking forward to playing an “enormously joyful” Superman and that he was “very excited” about Gunn being hired.
That excitement didn’t last long.
A little over a month after confirming that he was going to be back playing the role of Superman, Cavill posted another message saying that he would not return.
“I will, after all, not be returning as Superman,” Cavill wrote on Instagram.
“After being told by the studio to announce my return back in October, prior to their hire, this news isn’t the easiest, but that’s life. The changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that. James and Peter have a universe to build. I wish them and all involved with the new universe the best of luck, and the happiest of fortunes,” he added.
Some people argue that Henry Cavill was misled in conversation into believing he was coming back when he initially made the statement that he was returning. Even James Gunn said as much telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I like Henry, I think he’s a great guy. I think he’s getting dicked around by a lot of people, including the former regime at this company.”
It became accepted narrative that Henry Cavill had to go because, in the words of James Gunn, they needed a new direction and a new Superman. Specifically, Gunn wanted someone a bit younger who could more than likely play the role for the next several years moving forward.
However, when James Gunn finally found his man, actor David Corenswet who is 30-year-old, turns out Corenswet will be older than Henry Cavill was in Man of Steel in 2013 when James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy movie hits theaters.
The question then became was Henry Cavill’s removal from the role of Superman something personal rather than a creative decision.
Enter The Rock…
In the wake of the box office failure of Black Adam in October of last year, a narrative was crafted that blamed Dwanye Johnson for all of DC’s problems. Because Johnson envisioned having his character go face to face with Henry Cavill’s Superman to the point Cavill appeared in the film as a mid credits cameo, insiders at Warner Bros. accused him of playing a power play against James Gunn.
According to Variety, Johnson reportedly made a plea to David Zaslav to keep Henry Cavill around so that his dream could be fulfilled. This infuriated WB executives behind the scenes who began to feed information to the media that buried Dwayne Johnson as egotistical and someone who was trying to go over people’s heads to change the culture of DC.
Johnson was slammed for daring to go to Zaslav directly rather than through a series of middlemen. Some people went as far as to blame Johnson for the failures of not only Black Adam but Shazam! Fury of the Gods after he reportedly declined to appear in the film as a cameo.
Johnson recently pointed the finger at the regime change at Warner Bros. for the fact his Black Adam project and vision for DC died.
When asked about it by Kevin Hart, Johnson responded, “I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership. And at that time, as we were creating Black Adam, developing it, shooting Black Adam, we got knocked down a little bit because of Covid and the shutdowns, got back up.”
“You have people coming in who creatively, fiscally are going to make decisions that you may not agree with philosophically,” Johnson asserted.
It was easy to disregard the concerns of The Rock as he and Cavill share the same agent, many saw it as a last-ditch effort to save Zack Snyder’s universe which had become very polarizing over the last few years.
To this day people are furious that Warner Bros. released the four hour Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max back in 2020. The resentment towards the Snyderverse may have blinded the ability to see there has been one common denominator with the issues between the former stars of the DCEU and James Gunn.
However, there was a third party involved in all of this as well: Ben Affleck. Gunn noted back in December that he wanted to work with Affleck and even had a meeting with him.
He tweeted, “Met with Ben yesterday precisely because he wants to direct & we want him to direct; we just have to find the right project.”
However, Affleck made it crystal clear he had no intention of ever working with Gunn, “I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not.”
“I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that,” he elaborated.
Then came the Gal Gadot situation…
While promoting her upcoming Netflix movie entitled Heart of Stone, the Wonder Woman actress told media outlets that she had spoken with James Gunn and Peter Safran and they assured her that they were going to work on Wonder Woman 3 together.
“I was invited to a meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran and what they told me, and I’m quoting: ‘You’re in the best hands. We’re going to develop Wonder Woman 3 with you. We love you as Wonder Woman you’ve got nothing to worry about.’ So time will tell,” Gadot said to Flaunt.
Unfortunately, what happened next is Warner Bros. threw Gal Gadot under the bus by denying her claim that she would be returning as Wonder Woman for a third film.
Warner Bros. insiders clarified to Variety that the studio had never made any concrete promises to Gadot returning and reprising her role, nor had they ever had any “definitive discussions” regarding the matter.
Basically, they called Gal Gadot a liar.
After the last year, the question has to be asked, who do you trust is telling you the truth Gal Gadot or James Gunn?
There’s an old saying that if you ran into An a****** in the morning, then you ran into a ******, but if you keep running in the a****** in the morning, you’re the a******.
The fact that now several A-list stars within DC’s cinematic universe have had a falling out in short succession with Warner Bros. in the wake of James Gunn’s hiring begs the question on whether James Gunn is the problem.
As much as James Gunn was loved by the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy to the point that when he was fired by Marvel Studios for tweets he made revolving around sexualized jokes about children, the complete opposite seems to be the case in regards to James Gunn’s reception within the cast of the DC Universe.
Dwayne Johnson is an actor who is always been credited with his easy-to-work-with mentality and generally likable personality (except for Vin Diesel) making it puzzling to hear stories about Johnson’s ego being blamed for the death of Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
It’s worth noting that the nearly $400 million dollars worldwide Black Adam did last October far surpasses any DC project that has come out in 2023 which includes the heavily promoted The Flash movie that James Gunn was on record claiming it to be one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.
With the information that we have available, we can only make one of two conclusions, either the actors who are once involved with the DCEU have all been lying to the public regarding their status with the company, or James Gunn is lying to the actors themselves.
Do you trust James Gunn more than you trust Henry Cavill, Dwayne Johnson, Ben Affleck, and Gal Gadot?
James Gunn’s Superman project is two to three years away from ever seeing the light of day, there isn’t anything else regarding the future of DC that has anyone excited enough to make them part with their hard-earned dollars.
The Zack Snyder Universe was not the answer for Warner Bros.’ hopes of rivaling the Marvel Cinematic Universe but whether James Gunn is the solution to their problems or the cause is still yet to be determined.