ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - James Gunn opens up about his Batman Problem and What's Wrong with the MCU

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

James Gunn has been giving tell-all interviews, opening up about the state of the DCU, what's wrong with Marvel, and why we're not getting a new Batman movie anytime soon. See Privacy Policy ...at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:46 I'm Ryan Erie. And James Gunn has been making the rounds promoting his new film, Superman. In interviews with Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, he talked about Batman, the firing of Henry Cavill, Zach Snyder, the downfall of Marvel, a potential Marvel D.C.
Starting point is 00:01:00 and why making a Batman movie is causing him a huge headache. Which makes me wonder, should they even bother putting Batman in this new universe? Which I'll talk about a little bit later. So we're going to give you all the juicy details from these interviews, and a little later I'll be joined by my friends Tommy and Colton to get their thoughts on what the new DC head had to say. But first, let's break down this interview. Also, remember, you can listen to Screen Crush on all your favorite podcast platforms
Starting point is 00:01:22 and shop at our merch store for great DC parody merch that we have created for you. We're also having a huge summer sale, 20% off the links are below. So let's start off with Batman. As of right now, Matt Reeves' sequel to 2022s, The Batman is still on the table. A script was supposed to be delivered to Gunn last month on Memorial Day, but Gunn has confirmed that Reeves has yet to deliver, and he even called him slow. But he paired that comment with quotes saying, let him, meaning Matt, take his time. Let him do what he's doing. God, people are mean. Let him do his thing, man. Gunn also dismissed the claims that the sequel was on the chopping block. The interviewer cited Gunn, having previously stated that Matt Reeves wanted his Batman universe to be separate from the DCU. And when asked if there was ever any possibility of Robert Pattinson's Batman being the DCU Batman, that is the Batman that lives in the same universe as the new Superman, Gunn had this to say. It would be a consideration. We'd have to think about it. It's not like we've never discussed it. Batman's my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally. I'm not riding Batman, but I am working with the writer and trying to get it right because he's incredibly
Starting point is 00:02:21 important to DC as is Wonder Man. Gunn went on to say that Batman has to have a reason for existing. So Batman can't just be, oh, we're making a Batman movie because Batman's the biggest character in all of Warner Brothers, which he is. Instead, there needs to be a need for him in the DCU and a need that he's not exactly the same as Matt's Batman. Now, I personally wonder if this means we should even have Batman in the DCU because there are so many other great characters in the DC Canon. But we're going to talk about that a little bit later on. Now, when pushed on the percent chance of Pattinson's Batman being the DCU bat, Gunn took a long pause and said, I would never say zero because you just never know. But it's not like.
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Starting point is 00:04:32 Now, back to what I was saying. Now, here on the channel, we've talked extensively about how Marvel Studios and Kevin Fagie are being stretched thin and forced to put out way too much content, resulting in a massive drop in quality. When asked about this downfall, Gunn had this to say, listen, you can do everything right and make a bad movie, but I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies. The number one reason is that people are making movies without a finished screenplay. Gunn went on to say, we just killed a project. Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. And the screenplay wasn't ready. And I couldn't do a movie where the screenplay's not good.
Starting point is 00:05:07 And I cannot have wait to talk about what that could have been with Colton and Tommy. I mean, what was this canceled project? Maybe it was the anti-machity Batman movie, The Brave and the Bull. Gunn went on to say, over at Marvel, they've been pretty open about the fact that they realized what's going wrong over the past few years. They put out too much stuff. And long-time Marvel executive producer Louis Di Esposito said that privately to me. I don't even know that it's really their fault. They were under a corporate mandate. That wasn't fair.
Starting point is 00:05:33 It wasn't right. And it killed them. Guys, that's huge. Like James Gunn basically tattled on Disney ruining Marvel Studios. Gunn was then asked about the small but loud group of dedicated Snyder fans who are rooting and plotting for the demise of Superman and the DCU. Gun said, I don't mind it. I think it's good.
Starting point is 00:05:50 I think you don't even want to have everybody root for you. These people actually help us because you don't want everything to seem 100% positive. It's all right to have an opposing force every once in a while. So it's clear that Gunn isn't too phased by those still demanding that Zach Snyder and Henry Cavill be given their universe back. It's best to just move on. In an entertainment weekly interview, Gunn confirmed that Henry Cavill was actually let go well before Gunn was even brought on to Helma Superman's script. We will treat you so much better than those shit fucks down the street. You were just leaving.
Starting point is 00:06:19 And that Warner Brothers never intended for Gun Superman to have Captain. But I am joined here by two of my favorite people. We have Colton Ogmer and the guy who's trapped in our TV, but doesn't know it. So please don't tell him. And Tommy Beck told the guy who is always on break. So I love that James Gunn approaches everything. I feel like other movie studio people are politicians, but James Gunn just kind of sweeps him like the guy who knows this is all about tights and fights and there's no consequences to what he's going to say, right? He's just blunt and honest and he's always been that way online, sometimes to his own detriment. So let's go through this. Let's start with this Henry Cavill news, guys. So I want to point out there's one thing about that that's not, maybe not quite true, or maybe the time he doesn't quite line up. He says they let Cavill go before he got there, which is true. But then, you know, Tommy, your hero, Dwayne the Rock Johnson stepped in to try to be the new center of power in the DC universe. And he brought Cavill back for the post-credit scene of Black Adam. And James Gunn has even said, like in that post-credit scene, we see Amanda Waller, his wife is in the post-credit scene. He's like, I had nothing to do with that.
Starting point is 00:07:21 and they didn't consult him because at that time he had just been hired. So what do you guys think about that, about like this, the possibility, like, could Cavill have ever worked or was he, like, too tied to the Snyderverse to begin with? I think that it would have been a huge uphill battle to try to integrate him in as Superman in this universe. It's also kind of counterintuitive to the announcement of this, like, clean slate, this brand new DCU. I love Henry Cavill as Superman.
Starting point is 00:07:47 I was a fan. I even was happy that he was brought back. at the post-credit scene of, was it Shazam or Black Adam? Oh, it's Shazam, right? No, it's Black Adam because of Shazam, they never show his head. Oh, right, right, right.
Starting point is 00:08:01 I guess for me, the thing is, it's like, it's probably way messier. James Gunn is probably giving the, like, the story you tell your kids about why you're getting divorced, whereas, like, the reality of it, there was probably, like, you know, Campbell's team probably tried very hard to keep him involved.
Starting point is 00:08:17 And at a certain point, like, these actors have egos, and it's like, well, if you're going to start over, I'll just walk away, and in fact, I'll appear as a Wolverine variant in Deadpool v. Wolverine. I honestly, I don't see it working as much as I like him as an actor. I think maybe if James Gunn's DCU and gets wildly into a multiverse at some point, we could see him returning a la all the variants that returned in the Flash movie, but that's certainly nothing I'm rooting for.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Colton, you had a great theory on a video a while back that if Ultraman, is bizarro, how cool would it be if that was Henry Cavill? I don't see Henry Cavill allowing himself to be the heavy and get beaten, but I think it would be pretty cool. Well, and something to keep in mind is they really did move on from Cavill. And then Hamada, who was over DC, like at the time, and he was kind of like halfway out the door, the rock really took advantage of the fact that there was like no adults in the room,
Starting point is 00:09:18 like when they were finishing Black Addo. and, you know, with his star power, went to, like, the WB higher-ups and it's like, hey, can I get Henry Cavill for this post-credit scene? And they were like, sure. You know, throw Superman in there. Then Cavill did an Instagram post where he said, I'm back, right? Like, oh, my gosh, that's so embarrassing. Messy, messy, messy.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Just messy. Messy all around the fringes. I'm known as having, I love Cavill Superman. I really like Man of Steel, but you had to move on. It was time to move on. The DCEU wasn't working and not just the Snyder stuff. None of it, none of it was working. And if you were going to have a new, fresh start, I think you had to move on from Henry Cavill. Well, it's interesting. Aquaman made a billion dollars. Wonder Woman made all this money and was praised. There's a, maybe a universe where Wonder Woman 1984 was another masterpiece, you know, where the pandemic didn't hit, an Aquaman sequel comes out sooner. And maybe it could have limped along, maybe with the different Superman director. But you bring up a good point about. Snyder because there's this like Reddit post that's been read ironically by almost nobody that we're going to get the Snyderverse back we're going to review bomb we're going to this ridiculous
Starting point is 00:10:30 post actually said let's buy tickets let's start to buy tickets to Superman but leave them in our cart so they don't get processed and nobody can buy them who has the time I mean the thing about the Snyderverse guys is we got the Snyder cut and it was a financial disaster for Warner Brothers. It seems like this is a very loud group of people who have no real actual power, which is a shame for them. I mean, I also think Zach Snyder got screwed over by Warner Brothers, but who has the time? Wouldn't you just rather watch a movie and enjoy it? I mean, Tommy, what do you think? I mean, you're probably the guy who posted it now that I think about it. I mean, first of all, it's getting way more traction than you're giving it credit for it,
Starting point is 00:11:10 but that's typical shill suppression. No, I, I mean, I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous. think that like these calls to action rings so hollow at a time where there are legitimate calls to action around the world for like real causes and then they're kind of worded the same and you can do nothing else but scoff at the immature it's like when you're a kid and you wear a suit right like you want everyone to take you seriously you're trying to dress up like your dad but no one's doing actual business with you no one is doing actual business with these fans they have no influence other than being obnoxious and it's like it is unfortunate that the loud voices even in small groups get hurt and amplified because we're even scoffing at it that is me doing that now is breathing
Starting point is 00:11:51 just the slightest bit of oxygen onto it which i don't want to do but yeah and i it sounds to me like you had a really really traumatic experience as a kid trying to sell insurance door to something it was tires i was trying to sell bike tires i love that metaphor you in the garage like with your own business with death set up my little portfolio it's just got baseball cards in it i'm like we're Actually, I'm pretty liquid right now. I've got a lot of me tied up in Bowman. Your main competition was Encyclopedia Brown. That kid was too clever.
Starting point is 00:12:28 You teamed up with Bugs Meany to have him feel. Okay, so for all the Encyclopedia Brown fans who are watching right now, the comments section just lit the F up. Colton, I know that you're one of my favorite people when it comes to the Snyder stuff because you were able to like Man of Steel. but not revere it with this, like, religious fervor that a lot of people have it. You know, my opinions are well documented on the channel to the tune of millions of views. I don't think we have to go into it. I am interested, though, in Colton and I, especially what your thoughts on this.
Starting point is 00:12:59 In those interviews, James Gunn says they just axed a project that was greenlit. Now, it is possible there are projects that are greenlit we haven't heard about. Sure, right? Like the Clayface movie was a surprise because it wasn't part of that original. slate that Gunn announced a year and a half ago, two years ago. I'm not sure when that was. So I want to run through some possibilities here. And let's maybe see if we can guess what this is. The authority is probably at the top of my list because it's a lesser known group. And it seems like they were really gung-ho because the engineer is in Superman, right?
Starting point is 00:13:35 And she's a member of the authority. Swamp Thing, which may have been a TV show, so I may be speaking out of turn. In fact, I think he said movie, but so I'm kind of mixing up movies and TV shows here. There's also Waller, Paradise Lost, and Booster Gold. Now, Lanterns is already filming. Supergirl has already wrapped production, but also the Braving the Bolt. I mean, they hired Anthony Mochetti right out of the gate after Flash, which James Gunn said he loved. And, you know, elsewhere, they do talk about, like, all these problems that they're having trying to get Batman off the ground. Do you think they canceled that movie?
Starting point is 00:14:07 Or what do you think they did cancel? I don't think it can be Brave in the Bold. I, because he was very specific to say that he canned this project, like, it's not happening anymore, was the, like, what I got from that. I think there's no scenario where he can's brave in the bold. I think perhaps they're having trouble with the script, and he wants to make sure it's perfect before they move forward with it. But I highly doubt that it's a Batman-related project that has been, like, just completely removed from the release schedule. I hope it's not Swamp Thing. That was the project.
Starting point is 00:14:41 I was most excited for, and I could, I think it was going to be a movie if I'm remembering right. Yeah, my, my recollection was it was, it was, uh, announced as an R-rated horror movie. Yeah. And I think maybe, yeah, like maybe disconnected from the DCU even, like it's going to be just this own else worlds or whatever, yeah. I, I think it's great, though, that he is perfectly willing to say, this isn't good enough. Like, instead of just churning out slot for the sake of, you know, putting something out. And I was really glad to hear that Warner Brothers isn't like, you know, breathing down his neck, like, saying, you have to release this many projects on this state and this year. I'm really glad that they've kind of learned. They're not missing the fact of
Starting point is 00:15:24 why they got James Gunn in the first place, which was he knows what he's doing. Let's let him do his thing. I wonder how many years that's going to hold up, though, because when you look at Warner Brothers, and I agree, I don't think they've canceled Braven the Bowl, but they haven't even announced who the writer is. They've just had Anthony Machete's directing. I do wonder how long Warner Brothers can go with this because David Zazlov has kind of instituted the weirdest policies there that seems so counterintuitive to creatives. For instance, right, not just canceling Westworld season five, but removing it from their streaming platform as a tax right, canceling Backgirl, canceling Coyote versus Acme, not to mention the litany of things behind the scenes that
Starting point is 00:16:01 have finally led to Warner Brothers just dividing this up, like letting discovery and all those places go over here and Warner Brothers go over here. It seems like that for the past 30 years, ever since the AOL merger, they haven't known what was up and what was down at that company. This could be the one division where they're trusting a creative, but I wonder how long it'll last. Like if Superman doesn't do well, I don't see how this universe keeps going. Tommy, what do you think? I think we'll know a lot more in August. I think, like, you know, we will see how, we'll see the tone at Comic-Con and we will see the, you know, the first few weeks of box office globally and domestically for Superman. And I don't think they'll necessarily, you know,
Starting point is 00:16:40 like a public announcement of like Zazlov coming in and pushing mandates but I think we'll see I I don't think that it's as long of a leash as James Gunn is always going to be confident and comfortable in interviews which is great I love his personality and I think it would be disingenuous if he gave a very company
Starting point is 00:16:56 line interview where he was very vague about things and not you know personally forthcoming but I do think that I don't I think that there is a lot riding on this Superman movie being a massive hit Not just a success.
Starting point is 00:17:12 I think it needs to be an absolute. I mean, look at all of the merchandise tie-ins they're doing. I kind of fear that even if it does do super well and like it's, you know, beloved by audiences and critics and cracks 650 million, I wonder if on the flip side of that that we could see W be like, oh, okay, we need a Superman too, like in a year from now. That would also be problematic. I mean, back to Swamp thing, you know, one thing I liked about James Guns, initial layout, right? As he said, the first phase has a theme. It's gods and monsters. Very cool. And I think
Starting point is 00:17:46 you see that with these first two projects released, Creature Commandos and also Superman. So Swamp Thing fits in perfectly into that theme. That's why I kind of think you're, I think that's going to be the one that they're cutting. Maybe even that idea of the monster figure has been taken over by Clayface. And, I mean, if Swamp Thing was an Elseworld story, I wonder if that means that Clayface is an elseworld story, or if it's the same clay face we saw in Creature Commandos. What do you guys think? Does that make it more or less likely to you that Swamp Thing is out? I mean, I would say Swamp Thing being out would be,
Starting point is 00:18:19 A, exactly how he described it. The script just didn't live up to what was pitched, because what we was announced was basically the pitch, right? Like they had bought the idea behind it. It was going to be the Sar-rated Horror movie. I also think, like, I think you make a good point that, like, although they are two very wildly different characters to comic book fans, two kind of melty, you know, grotesque humanoid things like coming out as like back to back or recent projects is to the casual blockbuster movie viewer, maybe not the most successful thing.
Starting point is 00:18:49 And maybe there might be a mandate from, from Warner Brothers to like play the hits a little more, like be like, you get Clayface, but you're going to give us Batman or you're going to give us, you know, you're going to give us one of the Justice League members, you know, before you get a swamp thing. So even though it could be pitch, yeah, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, no, sorry, the play the hits is what I'm worried about. I'm going to talk about that later concerning Batman with you guys. But, like, that's one thing I'm really worried about. Do you guys think that the, the, look, I'm not, I don't think. I know that the appearance of man thing at the end of werewolf by night, probably single-handedly killed Swamp Thing.
Starting point is 00:19:26 I think that they thought Marvel fans, and they were going to be confused, and that they were like, nope, everybody's going to think that's the same guy. And I think Zadlov put the hammer down and robbed us to that. But seriously, going back to Swamp thing, though, the source material of that Alan Moore run is incredible. Like, there's a lot to draw from from that script. And maybe that's one of the reasons. You know, Gun is such a comic book-oriented guy. He might be comparing this screenplay to the masterpiece that Alan Moore gave us for years.
Starting point is 00:19:53 I don't know. One thing, too, about James Gunn, ever since he got in this new authority position, I don't know if you guys noticed this, but it seemed like he's been a little more company line, right? The Flash is great. It's one of my favorite movies. We're not going to rule out Ezra Miller playing the Flash in our universe, right? 100% some of those things were lies, especially the part about Ezra Miller. He also pretended that the upcoming DC-E-U films had anything to do with what he was setting up for the DC.
Starting point is 00:20:21 Probably had to. But I feel like with these interviews, we're getting the old gun back. I mean, the fact, you know, I kind of brushed by it earlier, but he said that Louis de Esposito told him that they were getting corporate mandates, and that's what ruined them. That's actually kind of huge. Like, that's for our people, that's like Watergate level leaks. And it's nice, though, that like you said, Colton, they have this like, oh, yeah, look, Warner Brothers has this example of what didn't work. So what do you guys think about that?
Starting point is 00:20:56 This revelation, I guess it's sort of confirmed through a secondhand source that Marvel is basically was forced to produce content. instead of stories. I think it makes perfect sense. And I love that his line of Marvel's biggest issue was making, I don't think he specified Marvel, but he said they make movies without finished scripts. And like that is, I think all of us have lamented the fact that like, the way these movies come out as final products, you can see like, okay, the script was done to this point, and then they added this or they took away this. And like, it was, you know, different things with whether it's actor's personal lives or mandates because this character is doing well on a different thing. it all leads to this.
Starting point is 00:21:35 It's great coverage by James Gunn for his friends, right? Like, it's like, I mean, I believe it's true, but it's like, yes, it's nice to hear, like, we're not crazy. This is a watered down pool of content that's coming out, and it's watered down because they're trying to save their jobs. They're trying to keep their jobs. Like, we all ask, like, it's so easy to armchair quarterback, like, why don't you leave a bad work situation? It's like, well, the reality is, no matter how successful you are, you want to keep your job or you want to move up you don't want to like you're not just going to walk away from marvel just because they're telling you to pump out more Disney plus shows you're going to try
Starting point is 00:22:10 a lot of people have though at this point they've lost like a lot of really like Ashley Bradley who did the first two seasons of what if's a great writer and I think she got tired of the BS and walked away but she still did those two seasons right like I mean I'm not because yeah but yeah but yeah it's a whole thing animation it's they're already in motion stuff like that yeah that's a good point, yeah. I think he's also trying to, you know, keep the door open for those people to come work for him. Like, he's not blaming the riders. He's somebody who, except for Nicole Pearlman, he's always stood up for other screenwriters and directors and people like that. Colton, what do you think? Is this about Marvel and the revelation? And do you think that Marvel's
Starting point is 00:22:48 actually course corrected at this point? I mean, last I heard, Doomsday didn't have a finished script. And there are a few weeks into filming. Well, to Tommy's point about how you can see those scenes that are like stitching the movie together. I call those duct tape scenes. Like one that comes to mine is in Brave New World where we see Sam driving his truck and he's talking on the phone and it's just so much exposition
Starting point is 00:23:10 to tie it together. Yes, I do think Marvel is correcting course. I don't know if, I don't know if there's any validity behind the reports that they're filming without a script. I don't know. I hope that's not true.
Starting point is 00:23:22 I don't think that Kevin Feigy or Bob Iger would have any problem with Gunn having said this. In fact, I think Gunn has enough respect for Feigy that if he thought for a second that Feige would have a problem with him saying this, I don't think he would have said it. I think they're kind of leaning on the fact of,
Starting point is 00:23:40 hey, we know things have been rough for a while. It's that other guy's fault, but we're correcting Coorsdown. We're doing things our way. I don't think casual fans. I don't think the fans in jerseys are tied into this enough to know that, oh, that was Bob Chapeck, right? I don't think they understand that.
Starting point is 00:23:59 I think they just go, oh, yeah, I couldn't keep up. It's too much stuff. I'll catch it on Disney or whatever when it's on. I think that's what they have to wait long anymore. The stuff comes out into, is on streaming a month and a half after it comes out in theaters. Well, I mean, I think that they're, what their way of thinking for that is, like Thunderbolts is going to come out in a couple weeks as well. We're not making money in the theaters. We've got to make money somehow on it.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Sure. Where maybe if you wait a little bit, you'll make more money in the theater, you know, but it's hard to be that forward thinking. Sorry, cold. I was complaining yesterday that the sinner's Blu-ray wasn't out yet. And then my wife was like, yeah, you think it would be out by now? And I was like, actually, no, I'm glad that it's staying in theaters longer, even though I was just complaining that I wanted to do. I was surprised it came on digital.
Starting point is 00:24:42 Like, our breakdown's going to come out soon. But we like, I wouldn't scramble, but like, I was like, okay, well, we're not going to scramble. We're going to take our time. But, like, it's coming out two weeks after I would have liked for it to come out. So let's transition this over to Batman, guys. I've got some thoughts on Batman. I'm going to talk about a little bit later, about, I don't know,
Starting point is 00:24:59 I think maybe we get a little bit too much Batman. They lean on them a little bit too much. But in this interview, Gunn didn't shut the door on patents and being the DCU Batman. I always thought they could have easily just built the universe around that Batman, but they want to go a different direction and give us something we haven't seen before, which is the older Batman.
Starting point is 00:25:17 But what are your guys' thoughts on, you know, the continued trouble of a Batman movie here? I have to disagree. I think he pretty firmly. shut that door. Maybe there's a little bit of a draft coming in through the bottom, but I think he pretty firmly shut the door. Plus, we have to remember in Creature Commandos, we got that flashback scene in Gotham where we like saw a Batman. That can't be, you know, that can't be Pattinson's Batman, because he's only on like year two, and this was 15 years prior. It just can't
Starting point is 00:25:46 be. I think that there is no scenario where they bring the Pattinson bat in. And, you know, he also said that he didn't want to do like a jockey or campy Batman, which I was kind of surprised by because I thought, oh, well, that's the perfect Batman to do for a Brave in the Bold with a Damien Wayne and to differentiate, you know, your Batman from the Matt Reeves Batman. But it looks like Gunn is not going to let the Reeves Batman or, you know, having the older, more seasoned Affleck Batman having just happened. He's not going to let that deter him from just telling the story that he wants to tell. So I think that's good news. Tommy?
Starting point is 00:26:24 I think that's the, and I think that's the absolute right motivation to go by. It's like, who cares if it's just a shade removed from Robert Pattinson, Batman, or Ben Affleck, Batman? It's, we don't, we don't need Adam West, you know, or we don't even need Val Kilmer as much as God, rest and peace. I need Val Kilmer, just always. But I, yeah, I, I mean, he says this much in the interview, and you talk about it in the video, so I don't need to repeat. It's like, Batman is very important to the DCU. like it's and like you can only hold off on him so long but i think to me the the thing that they could do to kind of buy some more time is a cast cast batman you know what i mean like announce
Starting point is 00:27:05 who's going to play batman in the dc u and then then we can speculate for two or three years on what the movie's going to look like but like until then there's just going to be who is what kind of bad until they cast the role the type of batman we're getting is going to remain a huge question yeah but that's also So real quick, just to tackle into what Tommy said, I think that makes sense that if you're going to have patents and be the young Batman, it does make sense to have an older Batman who could be the father of a 13-year-old. So you're right about the casting, like whoever that is is going to be really important.
Starting point is 00:27:34 Colton, sorry, go for it. I think the MCU really benefited from the fact that they didn't have their Batman at the beginning, which is Spider-Man. That really pushed them to, you know, get creative and delve into these other characters. And I think it was beneficial that Spider-Man didn't show up until phase three of the MCU. Do you guys think that the DCU might benefit from holding off on bringing in Batman? So not having them at all in gods and monsters, you're saying? No, I would still have them in gods and monsters.
Starting point is 00:28:05 Yeah, maybe at the tail end because you're building anticipation for it. Like if these movies are good, if the shows are good, then it's going to be like, I can't wait to see what they do with Batman. It's the same way we felt about Guardians and Spider-Man and Black Panther. I was going to say that's exactly to both those points I think are the sauce there. It's like we didn't care that we weren't, or we were fine not getting Spider-Man because what we were getting was amazing. Like we were getting Iron Man and we were getting Captain America.
Starting point is 00:28:30 So I think if they can deliver on Superman and they can deliver on the Lantern Core TV show and they can continue to deliver on the other, the Max series, and I think that it's fine to hold off on Batman. Again, it's one of those things that we'll just see how Superman does because if Superman underperforms, we could have Batman in theaters by two Christmases from now. It'll be a Christmas Batman. It'll be very campy.
Starting point is 00:28:55 Like Batman Returns for Christmas Batman that came out in May, or June. So, guys, I got to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining me. But I want to tell you guys my own personal thoughts here of this Batman situation, and it might be kind of controversial. Thanks, guys. Now, here's my personal take,
Starting point is 00:29:08 and I know this is controversial. Batman is a great character. He is, like, elevated to the level of myth because he taps into so many ancient aspects of our collective psyche. He is Odysseus, the hero in the Odyssey, who did not have godlike powers, but was known as a man who was skilled in all means of contending. However, I think that for decades, Batman has been overrated in DC Comics. Oh, person, be careful. No, let me explain. In the Dark Night, Frank Miller wrote a scenario where Batman was able to beat Superman in a fight. It was predicated
Starting point is 00:29:36 on Superman having just survived a nuclear explosion and then being weakened by kryptonite, but sure, Batman won. But then Grant Morrison's JLA book added a story where it was that Batman had contingency plans to wipe out the league if they ever went rogue. And I do think that is cool and completely something Batman would do. But if Superman Flash or Wonder Woman wanted Batman dead, he would be dead. I don't care how many plans he makes. Superman would come up to him and snap his neck before he could blink. See, Batman is always interesting to me because he's vulnerable,
Starting point is 00:30:07 not because he's invulnerable. But over the years, Warner Brothers has leaned way too heavily on Batman movies and shows. They even made Gotham, a Batman, show without Batman in it. My favorite thing about the DCU so far is that they're committed to showing us other DC characters that are really cool and it doesn't just have to be all Batman all the time. The less you use Batman, the cooler he is. So I wouldn't mind if the DCU Batman is pushed back while they wait for a script, you know, to give other characters a place to shine. But I guess the problem is that people won't go see those movies. I mean, Blue Beetle was the best
Starting point is 00:30:38 DC movie in years and nobody saw it. But what do you guys think? Should we get two new separate bat franchises running at the same time? Should Robert Patton's and be the DCU Batman. What else did you think about James Gunn interview and what other DC characters deserve the spotlight? Let us know down in the comments below where you can find me on our free-to-joint Discord server. And if it's your first time here,
Starting point is 00:30:56 please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Screencrush, I'm Ryan Airy.

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