Even though he’s under no obligation to do so, James Gunn has made it his mission to address as many trolls, haters, and critics as humanly possible on social media, and it happens so often that you have to wonder where he finds the time to put the finishing touches on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, never mind the rest of his DCU commitments.
You can generally set your watch to the co-CEO stepping into the battlefield of Twitter to clear up unfounded rumors, personal attacks, or unwarranted speculation, but even by his standards yesterday was a doozy that also underlined the sheer versatility of bile and vitriol being launched in his direction on a regular basis.
The first incident came when a clickbait headline claimed that Dave Bautista “didn’t give a f*ck” about starring in the new and hopefully improved DCU, which unsurprisingly forced The Suicide Squad creator into action seeing as the former WWE star is a longtime friend and regular collaborator.
Next in the firing line was Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part II, with Gunn responding to chatter that he could end up getting a little too involved in the next chapter of the Elseworlds franchise, as well as a production timeline that’s forcing fans of the opener to wait until October of 2025 to see what’s in store for Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight.
Last, but by no means least, the age-old conspiracy that Gunn has secretly been running a burner account for years that acts as a conduit for the filmmaker and executive to praise his own work in the face of unrelenting online negativity was handled, too.
Eventually, Gunn may have to simply abandon his hope to set things straight every time something is either brought to his attention or infuriates him, because one man rebelling against an unlimited army of trolls is a war that simply cannot be won, regardless of where the truth really lies.