“It wasn’t my call”: Despite Nepotism Claims, James Gunn Confirms 1 Major DCU Decision He Had No Part to Play in
James Gunn is one of the most powerful people in Hollywood at the moment considering he is assigned the task of steering the wheel of the movies, animated films, and series for the DC Studios along with Peter Safran. Lesser than a month after they assumed the position of co-CEOs, Gunn and Safran announced that the DCEU was going to get a soft reboot.
Given his love for superheroes and experience in working on such projects, it is warranted that James Gunn is going to do an amazing job with the reboot called DC Universe. Recently, he was accused of calling in favors for his wife in the movie Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which quite literally bombed at the box office. However, he pushed back on the rumors to assert that this was not the case.
James Gunn Had Nothing to do With Shazam! Fury of the Gods
It is not uncommon for industry professionals to call in favors for their friends or family, and show business does not happen to be an exception. Nepotism has been there in show business for as long as it has existed so it would not come as any surprise if James Gunn had called in a favor or two in Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
James Gunn’s wife Jennifer Holland plays the role of Emilia Harcourt in the end-credits scene of the second Shazam installment. This led to fans speculating if the director had anything to do with it. Gunn recently responded to some speculations on Threads in which he implied that he did not have anything to do with that movie and hence the characters. He wrote:
“It wasn’t my call and I didn’t write it – although it came out when I had just started at DC, its inclusion far predates me as (as does Harcourt as the warden of an underwater prison!). And, although I thought it was fun, I have no idea why those characters would be recruiting for the JS.”
Post by @jamesgunnView on Threads
Making movies is not a matter of months, it takes years to make movies as the process can be quite lengthy, especially for superhero movies, due to the excessive use of CGI. So it does not seem possible that the Guardians of the Galaxy director could have made any significant changes to the movie considering it was released on March 17, 2023, a little less than four months after Gunn was appointed as the CEO of DC Studios.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods Did Not Do Well
DC movies have not been doing too well lately with a few exceptions. The poor reception of these movies could be due to several reasons such as the decline of people’s interest in the superhero genre, a huge amount of competition, and the announcement of the DCEU reboot.
Read More: James Gunn Gives Major DC Shows Update as DCU Gears Up to Finally Dethrone Marvel
Shazam! Fury of the Gods managed to gross only $133.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $125 million, making it a box office bomb. This poor performance also made it one of the worst lowest-grossing DCEU movies. Zachary Levi, who plays the titular character in the movie, attributed its failure to faulty marketing as he claimed that it was a great family movie, a fact that was not highlighted well enough.
Hopefully, DC Studios’ co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran will learn from these mistakes and avoid repeating them in their future projects as they harm the studio’s reputation as one of the most popular superhero franchises.
