James Gunn Says His Marvel Firing Helped Him Write ‘Superman’

James Gunn’s path to writing Superman was shaped by more than comics and cinema, it was also defined by a professional low point. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, the DC Studios co-head opened up about how being dismissed by Marvel in 2018 forced a deep personal and creative reset, ultimately paving the way for his take on the Man of Steel.

“There’s no doubt that without that experience, I don’t think that I would’ve written the Superman that I wrote,” Gunn explained. “I definitely wouldn’t be doing this job if I didn’t get fired, but I don’t know if I’d be doing this job even if it wasn’t for that. I just don’t think that a character that pure would’ve quite appealed to me.”

Gunn was removed from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 due to resurfaced tweets, only to be rehired months later after vocal support from fans and collaborators. That period of uncertainty shifted his approach. “That opened the door for me to stop creating so that people would like me,” Gunn said. “That’s downplaying it – so people would love me. I think on some level, everything I had done came from a pleasing place.”

Though DC initially approached Gunn about Superman years ago, he declined at the time. “I needed the right way in,” he told Rolling Stone. “That required time to think through a few thousand options before I got to the way that I thought worked.”

Reflecting on the difference between the Guardians and Superman, Gunn observed, “They have a lot of heart, but they do have their own weirdness and oddities and edginess, and Superman isn’t that… what makes Superman who he is… is this really strong belief in what’s right, sometimes perhaps to a fault.”

“I’m less afraid now than I used to be,” he added. “I allow myself to be purely creative more than I used to… I’m less afraid of being goofy or sentimental, or boring or straight.”

Superman is scheduled to be released in cinemas on July 11, 2025.

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