James Gunn Says Marvel and DC Benefit From Each Other’s Success

James Gunn is reminding superhero movie fans that the perceived rivalry between Marvel and DC isn’t really a thing. Gunn is beginning production on The Suicide Squad but received a gift from his friends at Marvel Studios. It’s a scrapbook chronicling their work so far on the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. “Starting production on #TheSuicideSquad, I received perhaps the coolest & sweetest start-of-production gift ever, along with a note of how excited they are for the movie from Kevin, Lou, Victoria, Mary & Jonathan at @marvelstudios.” Gunn tweeted with photos of the scrapbook. “They made me this incredible scrapbook of our journey so far on #GuardiansoftheGalaxy. It’s a thick tome packed with memories that brought a tear to my eye.”

Gunn goes on to reiterate his view that Marvel and DC fans are kin and that the success of one company helps the other. “As I’ve said so many times, at the end of the day, Marvel & DC fans have a lot more in common than they do not. I am now & have been for almost all my life, both,” Gunn tweeted. “Maybe you like one more than the other – that’s cool – but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them all or that you have to tear the other down… I know I & my partners at both Marvel & DC believe what’s good for one studio is generally good for all: spurring each other on daily with heartfelt, spectacular & innovative entertainment that keeps audiences around the world loving movies based on or inspired by sequential art… Let’s go, team(s).”

With The Suicide Squad, Gunn becomes the first director to work on a Marvel Studios film and then go on to helm a DC Films production (not counting Joss Whedon’s Justice League reshoots). The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran has said before that he thinks Gunn will be a unifying force in fandom.

“And you know what I love about James directing for both Marvel and DC is he has always espoused the view that that which unites comic book and superhero lovers is much greater than that which divides us,” Safran said in an interview in March. “Because, there’s always been this Marvel/DC rivalry, which he has said, and I agree, is absurd. There’s room for everybody and certainly that which unites us all is far greater than that which divides us, so hopefully they’ll see that you can be both a Marvel and a DC fan and the world won’t spin off its axis.”

What do you think of Gunn’s take on Marvel vs. DC? Let us know in the comments. The Suicide Squad opens in theaters on August 6, 2021.

Other upcoming DC Extended Universe movies include Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, and The Batman on June 25, 2021.