James Gunn has fought back against an attempted boycott of Warner Bros in protest of Gunn’s approach to creating DC extended universe content.
It’s undeniable that Gunn’s approach to the DCEU — with his mature-rated dark comedies The Suicide Squad film and spinoff show Peacemaker — is markedly different than that of Zack Snyder, who is more so known for doing a serious take on superheroes in films like Man of Steel and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
And while that fact may be a sore spot for some, Gunn is now pointing out how the wild amount of variation within the franchise can be seen as something to celebrate.
On Monday, a Twitter user and self-described Snyder fan made a post stating, “Nobody can save the DC anymore #BoycottWB.” The post was accompanied by an image of Snyder’s version of Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, and Henry Cavill’s Superman, shown side-by-side with a still from Peacemaker where John Cena’s Christopher Smith and Freddie Stroma’s Vigilante bask in the aftermath of a three-way.
In response to this, Gunn retweeted the post giving his own rebuttal: “DC is not one thing.
“A beautiful aspect of comics – & films based on comics – is they can be in any genre & for many ages. Most of us are comfortable seeing a variety of feels in our comics, films & shows.”
In the post, Gunn shared a variety of comic panels from vastly different DC titles, such as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ breathtaking Kingdom Come, and the more zany-looking Plastic Man #10 by Kyle Baker.
The context of this situation is couched in the more political aspects of pop culture fandom, in which Snyder fans, who are arguably rightfully resentful at Warner Bros. for bungling the release of 2017’s Justice League and then eschewing with the director’s involvement with DC altogether, are calling on people to boycott DC and WB.
Occasionally caught in the crossfire of this conflict is Gunn, who sometimes receives critiques such as the above, despite his Peacemaker show being highly critically acclaimed and popular. In real life, Gunn has said he is friends with Snyder and the two have even worked together in a past movie, 2004’s Dawn of the Dead.