James Gunn admits ‘superhero fatigue’ is ‘very, very real’

Former Marvel employee and current DC Studios boss Gunn acknowledged that “superhero fatigue” is “very, very real”.

The filmmaker and screenwriter is the force behind big superhero films such as Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and The Suicide Squad.

Following the tepid box-office response to both Marvel and DC’s most recent films (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods respectively), many are wondering if people are tired of superhero films.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn affirmed “there is such a thing as superhero fatigue”.

“I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes,” the director explained. “It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character.

“We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense on-screen, it gets really boring.”

Gunn continued: “But I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not.

“If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”

Superman: Legacy will be the first motion picture of the Gunn-Safran period. Warner Bros. expects the project to be completed by July 2025.