When Disney and Marvel were still trying to figure out how to build a cinematic universe, the studios experimented with a concept of authorship similar to the comics industry. Instead of every film being dedicated to one creative direction where all individual stories must tie together to create on cohesive, over-arching narrative with a crossover event to cap them all off, they went with an authorship-based approach. This is to say, that most of the “phase 1 and 2” MCU films were shot and styled by their individual directors, with even the big crossover films like Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron having their very own tone, visual presentation, and themes chosen and crafted by their directors. You can see this most with phase 1, where Joe Johnson crafted a very classic, all-American hero story in Captain America: The First Avenger while Kenneth Branagh made Thor a Shakespearean space drama with Dutch angles. So when the MCU started to expand into the more niche sections of the comics, Disney, for some reason, decided to hire one of the most niche directors to adapt one of the oddest groups in Marvel comics.
Enter James Gunn, who has now directed 3 Guardians of the Galaxy films, and is now the head of creative over at DC, leading the charge for the creation of a new DCEU. But who is this Gunn guy? What has he achieved up to this point and what should we expect from him in the future? That’s what we plan to talk about in this article and, hopefully, provide some insight into one of the most interesting blockbuster directors in recent film history.
Let us start with James Gunn’s humble and very strange origins. Gunn began his professional career working with some of the most unprofessional filmmakers of the 1990s: Troma Entertainment. For those who are luckily uninformed, Troma Entertainment is an independent film production and distribution company that specializes in the creation of, let’s say, unusual horror comedies, with films filled with nudity, gore, and outrageous violence. In fact, one might say all of those previous attributes should have the word ‘outrageous’ attached to them. Now, while being bizarre and extremely crude, Troma has a history of being a jumping-off point for future talent like J. J. Abrams, Marisa Tomei, and James Gunn, who co-wrote the disgustingly fun film Tromeo and Juliet.
This “film” is a modern retelling of the classic Shakespeare story of Romeo and Juliet, but told in a much more vile way. Following this up, Gunn decided to do something with a bit more class by writing, producing, and acting in The Specials. This would be his first foray into the superhero genre, an ensemble comedy about a group of misfit superheroes on their day off. The Specials really highlights Gunn’s love of goofy comic characters and his understanding of why they can be such a great cast for a comedy. This, over all his other works, feels like the blueprint for what he would accomplish later on with Marvel and DC.
Aside from his Troma roots, Gunn also wrote the screenplays for the live-action Scooby-Doo, the Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of The Dead, and the sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. These films prove that Gunn has both an interest and affinity towards adapting popular works, but also in adding a certain special touch of comedy and, for lack of a better word, weirdness to them. You can especially see this in Scooby-Doo, which feels like it’s always on the cusp of being just a little too adult for kids; like Shaggy’s love interest being named “Mary Jane”, some vaguely sexual references, and mildly scary body horror.
In keeping in line with his roots, Gunn returns to his horror background with Slither, where he would first enter the directing chair for a feature film. Slither is a horror-comedy about an alien parasite that infects the local residents one-by-one, turning them into tentacle monsters and zombies. Being his directorial debut, this is where we really get to see what Gunn is as a filmmaker, with his fun visual style loaded with gore and practical effects, head for comedy, and love for genre movies. Slither has sort of become a cult classic and would help build Gunn’s small fanbase.
Gunn’s other film before he steps into the MCU would be a much different superhero film in Super, starring Rainn Wilson and Elliot Page. Much like his previous work, this would be a dark comedy filled with violence and generally gross stuff (we will not be getting into the uncomfortable scene between Wilson and Page, that’s a whole can of worms for another time). Along with those usual hallmarks, Super also hits a lot of the same notes found in The Specials, showing Gunn’s love for the campy and goofy nature of superheroes. He both adores them and also sees what makes them, inherently, a little silly. Now, this being the last thing Gunn works on before Guardians is very interesting, because Marvel had to have seen this before bringing him on. They must have seen something in his approach that could spice up the MCU.
To say Gunn’s writing and directing of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014 was a game-changer for Marvel Studios would be an understatement. Not only did Gunn usher in the bizarre, cosmic side of Marvel comics to the screen, introducing us to characters like Rocket Raccoon, The Collector, and Howard the Duck, but also added a smidge more banter and quips to the interactions between characters that would become a staple for the MCU as a whole. After Guardians became a massive success in both making some of the most obscure Marvel Comics characters into household names and making a whopping $722 million at the box office, Gunn was brought back on to write and direct a sequel soon after.
Where the first Guardians film is more of a classic rag-tag story of a group of scoundrels teaming up and becoming best friends, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 takes a much more heartfelt approach, attempting to focus the film more on the emotions of the characters than their goofy antics. This has led to some debate as to the success of the film (which made $863 million, by the way), in that some did not resonate with characters talking about and confronting their trauma. However, this seems to be what Gunn was always after with these characters and would continue to make superhero films where he has the wacky, out-of-left-field characters not only fight some sort of physical monster, but also fight the monsters inside of themselves. This can be seen in his next project, which would be released after he was fired by Disney and immediately scooped up by DC.
To make this as simple as possible, Gunn was fired by Disney after people online began to surface some “edgy” social media posts Gunn had posted in 2008 in a sort of, “get him out before he drags down the brand” kind of way. Let’s not forget that they had to know this is the same guy who co-wrote Tromeo and Juliet, Slither, and the Super before hiring him. Not seconds after he was released from Disney, DC scooped Gunn up and let him make a Suicide Squad movie, that would simply be called The Suicide Squad. Here Gunn does his same Guardians-style approach to a superhero flick, with a team of weird superheroes being forced to work together, getting over their differences, facing their internal demons, saving the day, and making best friends along the way.
However, something was very different here. Unlike Guardians, which was a Disney property and thus could only lightly reference adult material, Gunn was given complete creative freedom to be as gory, violent, and crude as he so desired. Not that the Guardians films didn’t have small touches of gore here and there, but The Suicide Squad was extra gory, like having a slow-motion shot of a land shark ripping a man in half as lighting highlights the viscera stretching out until they snap apart.
It would be wrong to say Gunn rekindled his love of gore, but was rather given the ability to reincorporate gore into his projects, which audiences would notice in his latest project, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. So, remember how he was fired from Disney? Well, after a lot of people complained and they realized how much people really loved Gunn as the director of the Guardians films, Disney sent Gunn offers to bring him back into the fold. Gunn obliged, but only so he could finish Guardians Vol. 3, after that he would go on his way, which would lead back to DC; but we’ll get there soon.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is possibly the most Gunn of the trilogy, because not only does it center heavily on a character confronting his past traumas, but also features a lot of body horror-inspired creatures and gore. One of the major setpieces of the film is a space station comprised entirely of organic matter, meaning the station is built out of pure flesh. Thus, we have to watch our heroes slowly cut through this goofy, muscle-like material that just feels wrong to watch. You can also see this in the designs for the villains and the use of practical effects to make them both more realistic and grosser. Not to mention a lot of the action scenes depict some rather violet actions, like Adam Warlock decapitating a robotic pig monster’s head clean off or Gamora slicing through a bio-monster and the camera sits still as we watch the two halves of the creature slowly slide apart as fluids spill out.
With all that said, Gunn does deliver for Disney, yet again crafting a film that not only made (as of June 4th) $780 million, but also landed the plane in giving his characters a heartfelt ending. Thus, Gunn was free of his bond to Disney and would now return to DC where he was now appointed as co-CEO of DC Studios. This is a huge upgrade for Gunn, who has nearly complete control over the creative aspects of their films, animation, and TV projects. It seems that Gunn’s work on the previously mentioned Suicide Squad and the spin-off show, Peacemaker, along with continued advising to David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, pushed him over the top to become the top dog and head of state for DC. So what now?
Gunn has announced that he has begun developing and writing a script for Superman: Legacy about an up-and-coming Superman during his early years, and now has been confirmed to be directing it as well. Gunn is also slated to be working on two series, one being an animated show named Creature Commandoes, which follows a team of supernatural monster commandoes, and Waller, a spin-off of a spin-off (Peacemaker) that follows the story of recurring DC character, Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis.
In the last 20 years, Gunn has had quite the career as a filmmaker. He started out making gross-out, horror schlock and is now the co-CEO of DC Studios and the future director of a Superman film. Through all the genre flicks, bizarre parodies, and huge blockbusters, Gunn has proven that he’s always been the same guy he was back in his Troma days. The same guy who loves gore, practical effects, quippy dialogue, misfit outcasts, and characters with trauma. However, while being the same at his core, he’s also grown into a more palatable and marketable director. The fascinating thing about James Gunn as a writer-director is his ability to carefully craft intricate stories about characters comforting and growing from their trauma, while also being extremely juvenile through his execution of crude jokes and gore.
Gunn’s future with DC will be interesting to watch. As much as we’ve enjoyed his ventures with traumatized misfits, Gunn directing and writing a film about Superman does raise some doubts. Superman as a character does not exactly mesh with Gunn’s usual thematic wheelhouse or fit any of the usual character molds Gunn is known for. Superman: Legacy could be pivotal in proving if Gunn has truly transformed into a full, “family-friendly” blockbuster curator, or if he is and always will be the mildly edgy, genre-loving goofball who makes stuff for other edgy, genre-loving goofballs. Either way, Gunn’s film career is one of the most interesting of recent film history, and we are excited to see where he goes and how he will evolve as a creative.
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