James Gunn Claps Back At Critics Of Continuity In His DCU

With DC’s Clayface in theaters this weekend and Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday barreling toward us, users online have been playing compare/contrast.

One commenter apparently had questions about the connectivity between the projects in the DC Cinematic Universe being created by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Listing six recent projects — Superman, the Peacemaker series, Supergirl, the animated Creature Commandos, Clayface and the much-lauded series Lanterns — the person is question asks, “What’s this building towards??????”

Reposting that comment on Threads, an account called lostuslandcomics replied, “Gunn doesn’t have to build towards anything if the individual pieces work on their own…I think the MCU reprogrammed people’s expectations.”

Gunn commented over the weekend, “I couldn’t agree more. DCU is just an alternate universe; we can enter at any location or time and tell THAT story. I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else.”

The co-CEO of DC Studios went on to point out that “Star Wars has essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games and books.” He added that his Superman Saga — which continues with next year’s Man of Tomorrow — “contains many characters we’ve introduced in other stories. But that doesn’t mean those other stories only exist to set up what’s happening there.” (Marvel might argue that that “only exist” bit is a little reductive.)

He ended with, “I would love people to be seeing ‘Clayface’ because it’s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now.”

Here is Gunn’s reply in full:

I couldn’t agree more. DCU is just an alternate universe; we can enter at any location or time and tell THAT story. I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else. People not understanding this is strange to me, because Star Wars has essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games and books, admittedly without the tonal variety. Now, this doesn’t mean there isn’t connectivity.

The Superman Saga starts with Superman and travels into Man of Tomorrow and onward, and contains many characters we’ve introduced in other stories. But that doesn’t mean those other stories only exist to set up what’s happening there. I would love people to be seeing ‘Clayface’ because it’s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now.