While fans of superhero films may feel a competitive nature between Marvel Studios and DC Studios, director James Gunn — who recently left Marvel to run the new DC Universe — doesn’t believe that to be the case at all.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Gunn revealed that, as far as he’s concerned, the fact that Marvel Studios continues to do so well is only a good thing for DC, and the inverse of that is true as well.
“I think it’s the opposite,” Gunn said. “To be frank, I think the better Marvel movies do, it’s better for DC, and the better DC movies do, it’s better for Marvel. When people see bad movies, they don’t want to spend more money on seeing more movies. So you want good movies to happen, especially since we’re making two or three movies a year at DC.”
For Gunn, his take on the DC Universe has yet to fully take shape, as many of the planned films and television projects he announced earlier this year are not set to release for a couple of years. Despite that, Gunn says, every good movie Marvel makes will only make people want to see more comic book films.
“So every movie that Marvel has is sort of an advertising for comic-book films, and vice versa,” said Gunn. “And you don’t want to scare off people from going to the theater. And if we’re both making good movies, that’s the best of all situations, which keeps the ball bouncing back and forth. At that point, we can talk about rivalries, and it’d be fun.”
The DC Universe’s first phase, called Chapter One: Gods and Monsters, will feature a multitude of different movies and television shows. A few of the announced projects include Superman: Legacy, a Batman and Robin-focused movie called The Brave and the Bold, a Supergirl movie titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, a Swamp Thing film, and multiple TV shows.
