With Marvel and DC creating tremendous ongoing stories on the big screen, there has to be a question of how much involvement the comic book giants have regarding new elements being introduced to theMCUand DCEU? One person who has better experience than most isJames Gunn, who, having directed and written movies on both sides of the comic book divide, has been explaining just how often the powers above step in on the writing process. Gunn is currently working onGuardians of the Galaxy 3, and just saw the finale of hisPeacemakerseries play out on HBO Max, in a reply to a recent tweet, the director explained how the interaction of both Marvel and DC has been mostly exaggerated in the eyes of the public.
Gunn was quizzed by Twitter user @lylexxxx, who posed the question to the director in relation to thePeacemakerJustice Leaguecameos, asking, “Just curious, when you write something into a script that would become canon for the DCEU, what is the process? Meaning, do you have to submit a script and WB either says ok or no, or are there convos about it? Obv the cameos from Jason and Ezra required some talks.”
While it would seem obvious to assume that incorporating thoseJustice Leaguecameos would need some authority, Gunn has previously said that this was not necessarily the case. He echoed this in his response, which read:
“People overestimate the interaction of both DC & Marvel around this stuff - most notes have to do with making the story better. Except in extremely rare situations (such as a legal situation or if there’s a contradiction in another project I don’t know about), it doesn’t come up.”
James Gunn Said He Feels He Has More Freedom Working With DC Projects Than Marvel
In the past, James Gunn had said that he doesn’t believe Warner Bros. really knew what they were signing off when it came to his Justice League shots at the end ofPeacemaker. Still, he has also made it very clear that working on DC’s R-rated projects gives him the freedom to do more or less what he wants, as opposed to Marvel’s desire to keep much of their core work strictly PG-13.
“I wrote the script the whole time, thinking they would let me make it, I mean, they asked, ‘Can you make this PG-13?’ I said no,” James Gunn told Collider last year. “I said, ‘You can make it and take it with somebody else, and they can direct it, and you can do a PG-13. But if I’m going to direct it, I want it to be R.’ They were like, ‘Okay, that’s worth the trade-off for us.’ So, they were great about it.”
While Marvel may have given Gunn a new stage when hiring him to work onGuardians of the Galaxy,it is clearly DC who has allowed him to go back to his more adult-orientated roots but with the same big arena to play in. With a new season ofPeacemakerconfirmed and another secret DC project almost ready to be announced, it is clear that he is more than happy with the direction his work is going.
