Earlier this year, Arrow showrunner Marc Guggenheim expressed his disappointment that DC Studios hadn't enlisted him to be part of its group of writers crafting the new DCU.
After taking charge of pretty much the entire Arrowverse on The CW, it's easy enough to understand why Guggenheim felt he could be useful to James Gunn and Peter Safran. Now, though, he appears to believe the clock could be ticking for the superhero movie genre.
Talking on The Aarthi and Siriam Show podcast (via The Direct), he acknowledged that the current crop of Marvel and DC titles in theaters are "not great" and added, "I think superhero movies are going to become like what Westerns are, which is...it’s a genre that you revisit every now and again."
"I question how much of this is superhero movie fatigue and how much of this is not-great-superhero-movie fatigue."
"One of the most successful movies of this year is ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ which is a [movie] with all the tropes including the multiverse and it’s a huge hit," Guggenheim continued. "Why is it such a huge hit? Because it’s done so well. I personally don’t think of it in terms of the audience is tired or not tired."
"The audience is basically saying to us, you have got to justify the experience of going out to the theatre and seeing this as a movie, as opposed to waiting a couple of months to watch it on Disney+."
Guggenheim is right that superhero movies aren't necessarily the problem, but the bad ones are. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania kicked off 2023 on a disappointing note, while Shazam! Fury and the Gods and The Flash ranged from average to dreadful.
2024 is looking a little more promising but inevitable delays caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are on the horizon. With any luck, DC Studios will deliver the fresh start that franchise needs, while Marvel Studios needs to make getting back to the glory days of the Infinity Saga a priority.
Do you think superhero movies are here to stay?