Much has been said about superhero fatigue. For a time, it felt like certain people were attempting to will it into existence, but you need only look at the box office receipts of various Marvel and DC titles from the past few years to see the genre is struggling.
Not helping matters is a terrible run from DC (with poorly received efforts like Black Adam, The Flash, and Joker: Folie à Deux) and a hit-and-miss Multiverse Saga, which has seen Marvel Studios fall out of favour following Avengers: Endgame's record-breaking release in 2019.
In an interview with NPR, DC Studios co-CEO and Superman director James Gunn shared his take on why superheroes have been struggling in theaters.
"I don't really think there was ever superhero fatigue. But I do think there was a superhero gold rush for a minute. So I think there was a moment when anything with a superhero in it was making money. Visual effects allowed these movies to really shine and attract people's attention."
"After a while, people got sick because they're like, 'There has to be something else here for me to see this movie. There has to be outside of it just being another superhero movie. That's not going to get me by itself.' A lot of bad movies came out. Now, people need a reason to go to the movies."
The filmmaker later explained that huge event movies are now what primarily bring people to theaters, arguing that most choose to watch everything else (aside from the odd horror flick) at home. The full interview is worth listening to, as Gunn shares several insights into Hollywood's issues.
Elsewhere in the conversation, the studio executive opened up on how the DCU is shaping up and what he believes was wrong with the brand before it was united under the DC Studios umbrella.
"The main thing we wanted to bring was a consistency, not in terms of tone. One of the things we want to do is...all of our DC Studios projects are very different from each other. So, we have Superman, then we have Peacemaker season 2, which is a pretty gritty, grounded, R-Rated show. Then we have Lanterns, which is a very grounded HBO show, and then we have Supergirl, which is a space fantasy, and then we have Clayface, which is an all out R-Rated horror movie."
"I want those things to be different, but I felt the DC characters were sort of sold off to anyone that wanted to take them. There was nobody minding the mint."
He's not wrong, as the DCEU was very much a free-for-all following Zack Snyder's departure (which is how Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson came close to essentially taking over the franchise by having it revolve around himself as Black Adam).
In a separate conversation with Urbana Play 104.3 FM, Gunn was pushed for details about where things stand with the DCU's Batman and Wonder Woman. It was a familiar update, albeit one that does suggest work is ongoing with both long-awaited reboots.
"I mean, it's not going to be until the script is ready," he confirmed. "So, both the scripts are being written now, and if they are good, then I'll go into production immediately. So, it really depends on how we can get the scripts done."
Stay tuned for more on the DCU as we have it.