It's no secret that the Multiverse Saga has seen Marvel Studios struggle to recapture the success it found with the Infinity Saga. There have been critical and commercial disappointments in theaters and on streaming, with much of the blame for that laid at the feet of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek.
He pressured Kevin Feige to produce an increased number of theatrical and Disney+ titles, stretching the executive thin. It also led to a level of MCU fatigue created by too many stories for people to keep up with and an abundance of superhero content.
Marvel Studios is attempting to course correct, though that's proving to be easier said than done if Thunderbolts* is any indication. The movie received glowing reviews, but it will fail to break even by the time its box office run concludes. Now, all hopes are being pinned on The Fantastic Four: First Steps to succeed.
Rolling Stone put it to Guardians of the Galaxy director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn that there are similarities between Superman and The Fantastic Four, though the filmmaker wasn't inclined to agree.
"Maybe. But do you really think they’re alike? I’m really embracing the Silver Age of it all, but I don’t think that it’s as stylized, or at least not stylized in the same way," he countered. "And it’s not as retro. There are retro-futuristic aspects, because we’ve got Daily Planet with a big [frick]ing [globe]. And the robots, the machinery. So I can see where there’s certain similarities."
When Marvel's struggles were broached, Gunn said, "[Longtime Marvel executive producer] Louis [D’Esposito] said [they put out too much stuff] privately to me. I don’t even know if it’s really their fault. That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it killed them."
"We have to treat every project as if we’re lucky. We don’t have the mandate to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year," he said of how DC Studios' approach will differ. "So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible."
Superhero movies are no longer guaranteed to be $1 billion hits, and that's not lost on Gunn. Many fans believe it's inevitable that Marvel and DC will eventually be forced to join forces for a crossover movie meant to reignite interest in the genre.
For Gunn, the idea of the two worlds colliding on screen is less about box office revenue and more about his own fandom and what's best for these characters.
"We’ve talked about it a billion times. That could easily happen, but simultaneous to that, I think it would be interesting. But I also think people are a little over it. I think people wanna see good stories with their superheroes and that’s what matters. And they wanna see different types of stories with their superheroes. And people love superheroes. That’s obvious, but they need more variety, and they need just more quality storytelling. And just having Spider-Man and Superman team up isn’t gonna do it if it’s shit. So it’s gotta come from a real place, and it’s really hard to make that work."
"I did Superman because I loved the character. And I was excited about writing that movie. If I were to write a Superman-versus-Spider-Man movie, is it a concept I’m gonna be like, 'Oh, yeah, this could be a great film'? Or am I doing it because 'Oh, yeah, people want to see Superman and Spider-Man team up'? For me, it would have to be — if we ever did that, it would have to be under someone who thought it was gonna be awesome and wasn’t just a cash grab, because I’m just not into that."
Will we get an MCU/DCU crossover? It's clearly not outside the realm of possibility, but doesn't appear to be a priority for either studio right now. Depending on how the next few years go, that may change at any time.
In the meantime, Marvel Studios remains focused on returning to its former glory and Gunn in looking to establish the DCU as a success after the DCEU's many failings.