The Russo Bros. Are Willing To Make Movies For James Gunn And DC Studios
If ever there were a dividing line between playing in the respective sandboxes for Marvel and DC, those lines have now completely blurred. While fans tend to circle their wagons and maintain that a rivalry exists between the two major superhero studios, the reality is a little more nuanced than that. Though they obviously remain competitors in the same blockbuster space, James Gunn emphatically proved that there's nothing stopping creatives from jumping from one side of the aisle to the other. His specific circumstances would obviously be hard to replicate — it's been a roller coaster ride to go from being fired from "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" years ago, to defecting to DC with "The Suicide Squad," to being hired back to Marvel as a mea culpa, and then accepting his current position as co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios. But after paving the way, some more high-profile names might just be open to following Gunn's lead.
After directing 4 of the biggest and most important movies in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Joe and Anthony Russo have been riding high on their franchise successes with the luxury of picking and choosing their next projects. Who among us could blame them for needing a break from movies with capes and cowls? But to take the Russos as their own word, it's clear that the allure of superheroes might be too much to resist. The directing pair are currently promoting their newest venture, the Prime Video series "Citadel," but in a recent interview, they mentioned that they'd be open to crossing the streams and taking their talents to DC.
Which movie(s) would they be open to working on? They're not saying, but they do admit that a certain brooding, bat-eared hero has always been their favorite DC character...
'It would be a no-brainer'
When James Gunn and Peter Safran announced their initial slate of DC movies for the years ahead, fans instantly gravitated towards the news that DC Studios would be rebooting their crown jewel (yes, again) with "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." It didn't take very long for the internet to fill up with directors' names thrown around left and right in anticipation of taking a swing at this new iteration of the Caped Crusader, but is it possible that the upcoming movie could be placed in the capable hands of Joe and Anthony Russo?
That would be getting a little ahead of ourselves, admittedly, but the seeds are definitely there after a recent interview with ComicBook.com. At the very least, the Russo brothers seem extremely open to the possibility of working with Gunn as he reshapes DC's live-action future to his own vision. According to Joe Russo:
"Obviously James over there running it, it would be a no-brainer. We love him to death. We love the direction he's going to take that world in. You know he's gonna be inventive with it. And favorite DC characters? I mean, man. There are so many good ones. I always answer based on the comics I collected as a kid, and the two comics I collected the most were Spider-Man — actually, the three — were Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. But there have been a lot of iterations of Batman, so I feel like that's an obvious answer."
The two diplomatically avoid making any public overtures for the new "Batman" reboot, mind you, but the passion for the superhero is obviously there. Could the Russos one day reteam with the "Guardians of the Galaxy" director on his fledgling DC Universe? After Gunn's unlikely career path to this point, anything's possible.