'Guardians of the Galaxy' Director Promises to Not Kill Batman

Of the many talented filmmakers who have crafted films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, few are as active on social media as James Gunn, who regularly interacts with fans across multiple platforms. Based on recent comments he made about Batman, some fans chose to exploit the filmmaker's willingness to interact by hurling insults at him. For those who were nervous that Gunn might somehow kill Batman, fear not, for the filmmaker promised he would do no such thing.

WARNING: Graphic language to follow

I was stopped by TMZ at the airport & the guy asked me if I’d kill Batman if he was in GotG. I said “Sure.” “How?” “I don’t know, maybe throwing him off a roof.” So now these are the kinds of DMs I’m getting on IG. Calm down, guys. I’m not really going to kill Batman, I promise. pic.twitter.com/dcQxocya7I

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 10, 2018

The incident began with comments the filmmaker made to TMZ about whether or not he could theoretically kill off Batman were he a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a hypothetical that would never exist in any reality. Gunn jokingly said he would accomplish the task by throwing Batman off a roof, only for fans to send Gunn the message featured in the post above.

The filmmaker's remarks about the above example being only "the kinds" of direct messages he gets imply that this isn't the only person to reach out to him about the matter.

It's unclear what motivated the fan to send the message, as there are a variety of leaps in logic that could lead to a world in which Gunn killed Batman. Were the fan to have thought Gunn could somehow personally kill the character, that would require Batman to be an actual person and not a fictional character, thus making that path an impossibility.

With Warner Bros. owning the live-action rights to Batman, we won't be seeing the breach of company lines anytime soon, with the closest fans have come to seeing that event being in a four-issue crossover series in 1996 featuring each universe's greatest heroes colliding with one another.

The closest Gunn could possibly come to killing Batman would be if he were to be directing a film featuring the character, though even this possibility currently seems unlikely, given that Gunn is next developing a third Guardians of the Galaxy film for Marvel Studios.

Batman's next film, The Batman, will reportedly begin shooting next year with Matt Reeves directing.

What do you think about the fan's response to Gunn? Let us know in the comments below!