During a recent appearance on the ‘Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum’ podcast, the former ‘Smallville’ star – who has worked with James Gunn on several occasions in the past – asked the filmmaker point-blank: “Think you think there are too many superhero shows and movies?
Gunn practically shouted his answer, “YES!”, but while he was quick to reassure Rosenbaum’s audience that they’re “not going to overtake us in DC” and that they’re “going to be very careful with the product we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can be,” he explains that there is a problem.
“I think what happened is people got really lazy with their superhero stories. And they got to the place where, ‘Oh, he’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, let’s do a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,'” Gunn explained. “And they don’t ask, ‘Why is this story special? What sets this story apart from others? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? responds to a need for people in cinemas to go see? Or on television?'”
Gunn went on to repeat, “People have gotten a little lazy,” arguing that too often in superhero movies, “I don’t care about the characters.”
“And they got too generic,” Gunn said. “There’s that kind of middle-of-the-road genre tone that so many superhero movies have, instead of having very different genres.” He added that he enjoys a variety of superhero stories, including “serious” films, “comedy” films and even “murders”. [mysteries] but they are with superheroes.”
“I like seeing these different types of stories,” Gunn said, “instead of seeing the same story told over and over again.”