DC’s James Gunn Harshly Shuts Down Batman Casting Rumor, Raising New Questions

Who will play the next Batman? That’s a key question in the future of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, and it’s one that fans have had a lot of theories for. One popular one is that Batman will be a little older than Superman, given that Gunn’s plans for the Dark Knight reportedly involve a movie that would team him up with Damian Wayne — a ten-year-old biological son — as Robin. Since Superman star David Corenswet is 31, the thinking is that Bruce would likely have to be at least a little older in order to have had a son with Talia Head, since he never met her until he was already Batman and doing battle with her father, Ra’s al Ghul.

That’s probably a sound logic, but it doesn’t translate 1:1 to casting. Recently, a report surfaced claiming that DC Studios was looking for a “middle-aged” actor to play Batman, but DC co-chief James Gunn shut that down quick.

Sharing the report on Threads, Gunn had a one-word response: “Bullshit.”

When someone asked how such rumors get started, Gunn shared an image of two cartoon butts with eyes and mouths, suggesting that the speakers are “talking out of their ass.”

In other comments, Gunn acknowledged that there is a fine line when it comes to reporting rumors — sometimes, reporters are misinformed or simply misinterpret what they hear. Other times, he told fans, he thinks rumors are made up out of whole cloth.

SmallScreenCo, the account whose report Gunn had shared, later deleted their Threads post. They thanked Gunn for the correction. They had been re-reporting someone else’s rumor, and Gunn clarified that he knew they didn’t make it up themselves.

Gunn has developed a reputation for debunking various rumors, dating back to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and his time at Marvel — but as a studio chief, each time he rejects a rumor, fans take his denial more seriously (and often try to use the “no” as a way to deduce what the truth might be).

As a result, he seems to have cultivated an audience of fans who believe rumors and disinformation less readily, because they can count on him to debunk about half of the fake news. Often, you’ll see big DC news online, and the first handful of comments will be some variation on “I can’t wait until James Gunn debunks this.”

Gunn’s next project is Creature Commandos, the MAX animated series that will be the first official part of the DC Universe he is building with DC co-chief Safran. Next year, that universe makes its live-action debut in Superman, which Gunn wrote and directed.