Why James Gunn Turned Down Superman The First Time He Was Asked To Direct

Before the DC Extended Universe came to a close in ignoble fashion with a string of flops, James Gunn was asked to direct a Superman movie that might just have turned the franchise's fortunes around. But it seems the director was reluctant to accept the job back in 2018 due to the fact that he didn't really have a take on the character that he deemed worthy enough of a full movie.

Speaking at a Q&A event in London (via IGN), Gunn said, "I was daunted by the task. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it," adding, "If you remember, there was other stuff happening with Superman at the time ... it was going to be politically messy." That "other stuff" had to do with Henry Cavill and his ongoing involvement in the DCEU. In 2018, the franchise had just put out 2017's "Justice League," the box office disaster that doomed the franchise, and Warner Bros. was unsure about the future of their comic book movies. It seems the studio was, at least, fairly certain they were going to go in a new direction with Superman, which also put Cavill's future in jeopardy. As such, Gunn's discussions were happening at a fraught time for DC movies, and it seems this also played into his decision to stay away.

At least, he decided to stay away from Superman. Instead, he directed 2021's "The Suicide Squad" for DC, ahead of the release of his final Marvel Cinematic Universe film, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." Still, the idea of a Superman movie never left his mind.

James Gunn has spoken elsewhere about why he turned down a "Superman" movie in 2018, much of which also seemed to come down to the fact that he was more drawn to a "Suicide Squad" movie. As he told the New York Times, he was initially offered the "Superman" gig by former Warner Bros. head Toby Emmerich, who actually went to the same gym as Gunn's producing partner and future co-head of DC Studios, Peter Safran. Emmerich proposed the idea of a Gunn-helmed Supes movie, which caused Safran to become "crazy about it." Gunn continued:

'[Saffran] called me up, and I was like, 'I don't know what to do with Superman. What else?' And he said, 'Well, we really need a 'Suicide Squad' sequel.' I was so jealous of [director] David Ayer when they did the first 'Suicide Squad' [in 2016] because that was one of my favorite comics, so I jumped at that and didn't do 'Superman' because that was more up my alley.

But it seems Gunn's lack of a clear take on Superman was just as important as the prospect of overseeing a "Suicide Squad" sequel. The director told Entertainment Weekly that he turned down the offer because he "didn't have that special idea of what that [film] would be." It's a good thing, too, because after DC and Warner Bros. tried to bring Gunn into the fold, things only got more complicated for the DCEU.

The DCEU/Henry Cavill situation reached a fever pitch with Dwayne Johnson's bizarre attempts to remain in the DCEU following his 2022 "Black Adam" debacle. Johnson had drafted in Cavill for a cameo in his anticlimactic blockbuster, and together the pair announced Superman's official return. But as Gunn has explained elsewhere, Warners already revealed to him during their 2018 discussions that they wanted Cavill recast. What's more, at the same moment Johnson and Cavill were announcing the return of Superman, Gunn had been given the green light to write a whole new movie based on the character. To say he was confused by Cavill's apparent return, then, is an understatement.

By that point, the director had found that "special idea" that had eluded him in 2018, and Warner CEO David Zaslav had approved the whole thing. As the director said during his London Q&A, "Eventually [I] started to think that maybe it was something I can do." Still, he wasn't sure he would direct at first. "It's a little game I play with myself," he said. "It allows me to be free and to write something that is more fun, but then I usually almost always want to direct it."

Eventually, he did decide to direct as the new co-head of DC Studios. As the inaugural film in the relaunched franchise, Gunn's "Superman" was a charming crowd-pleaser that introduced a whole new age of DC superheroes. No longer will audiences be confronted with lugubrious desaturated blockbusters that seem entirely cynical about the heroes they represent. Instead, we can expect plenty of goofy little guys like David Corenswet's Man of Steel, who helped "Superman" soar at the box office, ultimately making $615 million (though that $255 million budget seems irresponsible at best).