James Gunn blames Disney for Marvel's downfall: ‘It wasn’t right, and it killed them’

James Gunn is making bold moves and even bolder statements as he takes the reins of DC Studios. With his highly anticipated Superman film on the horizon, Gunn finds himself at the center of the superhero genre’s potential revival.

James Gunn on Marvel

In a recent interview with , the Guardians of the Galaxy director didn’t hold back as he addressed what he sees as the core issue plaguing Hollywood blockbusters: rushed productions and unfinished scripts. “The movie industry isn’t dying because people don’t love movies anymore,” James Gunn stated. “It’s dying because films are being made without fully developed screenplays.” His critique strikes at the heart of how major studios have been operating—churning out content to meet demand, often at the expense of quality storytelling.

James Gunn, now in his third year as co-head of DC Studios, is determined to break that cycle. He’s leading a creative overhaul at DC, starting with Superman, which promises a fresh tone, a new cast, and a thoughtful return to character-driven storytelling. But more importantly, he’s laying down a non-negotiable rule: no film goes into production without a solid script. He revealed that DC recently pulled the plug on a greenlit project because the screenplay wasn’t up to par. “I just couldn’t move forward on a movie that didn’t have a strong script,” he explained. Fortunately, other upcoming titles—like Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface—have met his high standards.

What sets his approach apart is the freedom from studio mandates. Unlike Marvel’s pressure under Disney to meet yearly content quotas, the director says DC isn’t bound by output expectations. “We’re only going to release work we believe in,” he affirmed. He didn’t shy away from calling out Disney either, blaming Marvel’s dip in quality on the aggressive content push driven by Disney+. “That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them,” he said. With Superman marking a new chapter for DC, his commitment to quality over quantity might just breathe new life into a genre many had written off.