How James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ Could Make Or Break The Future Of Warner Bros. And DC

May 8

DC and Warner Bros. have a problem. They have been trying to compete with Marvel and Disney for well over a decade and consistently failing. Since Disney bought Marvel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, has exploded producing hit after hit after hit. DC tried to follow suit with the DC Expanded Universe or DCEU. It’s not that DC has produced flop after flop after flop. It’s that they have been wildly inconsistent. Warner Bros. hired James Gunn to reboot the DCEU as the DCU or DC Universe. They are hoping that he can do for DC what Kevin Feige has done for Marvel. The move is, in many ways, crucial to the future of both DC and Warner Bros.

The reason it is crucial to Warner Bros. is that they don’t have a lot of successful franchises. Harry Potter is by far their biggest, and Harry Potter has taken a huge amount of damage from its creator’s transphobia. The Fantastic Beasts movies have stalled and there’s no telling how the Potter reboot will be received. It’s too much uncertainty for Warner Bros. to count on. They need another successful franchise. Something they can take to the bank. They seem to be putting all their eggs in the DCU basket.

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The reason James Gunn’s hiring is crucial for DC is because DC has set themselves up for it to be crucial. They killed off the CW’s Arrowverse with Superman & Lois ending in 2024. They have removed everything from Zack Snyder’s DCEU from cannon. That even goes for the successes like the first Wonder Woman and the first Shazam. Blue Beetle and Peacemaker are the only things from prior to James Gunn’s hiring that have survived the purge. Matt Reeves’ The Batman is considered to be a different story in a different world. Gunn is basically starting from scratch. He is building a new franchise for DC from the ground up.

Superman will be the first entry in Gunn’s DCU and will be directed by Gunn himself. It would be an understatement to say that there’s a lot riding on this film. For Gunn, DC, and Warner Bros. it had better be a success both commercially and critically.

Commercially, Superman needs to do more than make up its cost of production. It has to be a mega-hit. That means at least $1 billion gross. The DCEU only had one billion-dollar movie, 2018’s Aquaman. Marvel’s MCU, by contrast, has had 11. That makes Marvel responsible for 20% of all billion-dollar movies. DC has a lot of work to do to catch up.

Critically, DC has to prove that they can make good movies consistently. If their first one is bad, it will be extremely hard, if not impossible, for audiences to trust the fledgling product. Marvel has earned the benefit of the doubt. Even when they have a bomb, people get excited for the next film. DC doesn’t have that kind of goodwill behind it.

The final reason Superman needs to be a hit is because Marvel is actually somewhat vulnerable right now. Stage five of the MCU hasn’t garnered the same kind of commercial and critical success as the prior stages. That could be because the movies themselves are worse. It could be because the public is experiencing Marvel fatigue. Or it could be because the public is experiencing superhero fatigue. DC had better hope it’s not the last one, and the success of Thunderbolts* suggests that it’s not. If DC can establish itself with Superman at a relatively low point for Marvel, it will bode well for the new franchise.

So, there’s a lot of pressure on Warner Bros. and James Gunn to get Superman right. If they do, it will be good for everyone, even Marvel. They could use some healthy competition. However, if Superman fails, it will be a disaster for Warner Bros. and DC. A disaster they may never fully recover from.

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