James Gunn Reveals Differences Between His DC Studios Role and Kevin Feige’s at Marvel

A question asked by many comic book fans is whether filmmaker James Gunn’s new role as co-CEO of DC Studios the same as Kevin Feige’s role over Marvel Studios. Gunn is behind Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, with its latest installment, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, currently in theaters. Since Gunn oversees DC Studios while also directing Superman: Legacy, that doesn’t leave him time to offer story ideas to his old boss, Kevin Feige. The latter is the President of Marvel Studios, so of course people have started debating whether he and Gunn have the same job responsibilities, which leads to a humorous response from Gunn.

James Gunn and his brother Sean Gunn were guests on WIRED’s Autocomplete Interview YouTube show, where the duo answered fan questions about themselves. The third question asked, “Is James Gunn the Kevin Feige of DC?” After laughing to themselves, Sean Gunn said, “There’s a Venn diagram where what they do is similar, and there’s part of it where what they do is different, right?” 

“It’s actually a little different,” James Gunn countered. “I mean, number one, DC Studios is a studio, so it’s a little bit different. Peter Safran [co-CEO of DC Studios] does a lot of what Kevin Feige does. A lot of what I do is I just work on the creative side of things. So mapping out the stories and the creative side of the universe is my job much more so than some of the more administrative, executive-type stuff. And Kevin has to do both.”

DC Studios’ Creature Commandos Begins Production

James Gunn’s DC Universe is preparing for launch. The critically acclaimed director took over creative responsibilities at the newly-minted DC Studios this past fall and unveiled his plans for the rebooted cinematic universe’s debut slate earlier this year. DC Universe Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters will have a mixed bag of content ranging from movies and streaming shows to animated and live-action projects. Kicking off the multi-year slate will be a project delivered in a doubly unique medium, Creature Commandos. While most universe-based franchises are built on live-action movies, Creature Commandos will kick off the DCU as an animated streaming series.

While top talent like David Harbour and Frank Grillo have already been assembled for the animated ensemble, the full crew has yet to interact in person. Speaking to ComicBook.com, Creature Commandos star Sean Gunn revealed that he has yet to link up with his co-stars.

“That’s the crazy thing about animation, is that a lot of times you don’t really get to see your colleagues very much because you’re mostly recording separately,” Gunn said.

Sean Gunn will be reprising his role of Weasel from The Suicide Squad in Creature Commandos, this time portraying the character in a two-dimensional capacity. He is set to pull double duty as well, as he will also provide the voice for GI Robot.