What happens when one of the biggest producers & directors calls out his genre? Well, that’s what we are asking ourselves now as James Gunn opened up about the state of superhero movies.
While not on the level of Twitter’s chatter about “superhero fatigue,” The Suicide Squad director feels the genre is in a rut. In a recent interview with SFX Magazine, the filmmaker dropped one of his usual hot takes. When pressed about if he enjoys newer superheroes films, he expressed that the genre feels like it’s running out of ideas.
“They’re mostly boring to me right now! [Laughs]. I loved them at the beginning, and there are still people trying to do different things [with them], so it’s not a 100% rule, but a lot of them are boring,” says Gunn.
Well, it’s no doubt that the superhero movies have been going hard for a while now, with only a few genuinely breaking the mould. But for one of the biggest names working in comic book movies right now to say that, it’s pretty surprising.
But on the flip side, everything seems to be preparing for another seismic shift as Marvel’s Phase Four is gearing up for some multiverse madness, and the DCEU is always in a state of flux. Could this new era spice things up for James Gunn and many others, or could filmmakers hit snooze on this wake-up call?
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Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
The Suicide Squad sees James Gunn directing a cast that includes Suicide Squad returnees Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) as well as new DCEU additions Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi, Jennifer Holland, David Dastmalchian, Joaquín Cosío, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, John Cena, Pete Davidson, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Julio Ruiz, Steve Agee, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, and Sylvester Stallone.
The Suicide Squad is set for release on July 30th in the UK and on August 6th in the U.S.