Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige accidentally predicted the future when Superman director James Gunn said he would work with DC.
Gunn recalled the prophetic moment during his appearance on this week’s episode of the “Expert de Armadeira” podcast. The “Guardians of the Galaxy” filmmaker revealed how his 2018 firing from Marvel over some tasteless joke tweets led to him being hired by Warner Bros. to direct “The Suicide Squad.” Apparently, it all started with former Warner Bros. president Toby Emmerich asking him to direct a “Superman” movie for the studio.
“Toby Emmerich from Warner Bros. at the time came to me. He’s like, ‘James Gunn’s Superman,’” Gunn told “Armchair Expert” host Dax Shepard. “I said, ‘I don’t know, man.’ And then he was like, ‘Well, what about ‘The Suicide Squad’?’ So, I had an idea.
This led to an awkward meeting between Gunn and Feige. “I went over to Kevin’s house. I went into his basement where he has all his ‘Star Wars’ figures [set up] like a little museum and he was like, ‘This is amazing,’” Gunn recalled. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s good, but I have to do something else first.’ And—oh my God, I didn’t remember this until now—Kevin says, ‘Ugh, you’re doing ‘Superman’?’”
You can watch Gunn’s full “Armadeira Expert” interview in the video below.
Feige ultimately gave Gunn his blessing to make “The Suicide Squad” before “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” When asked by Shepard whether or not he felt guilty at the time about working with Marvel’s biggest competitor, Gunn said he didn’t. “No. I didn’t feel that way because I was fired,” the filmmaker explained. Gunn was, however, quick to point out that he didn’t make the decision out of spite either.
“Listen, there are people I’m not so happy with there [at Disney], but it certainly wasn’t the Marvel guys, you know? They were completely supportive,” Gunn said. “[Marvel Studios Co-President] Louis d’Esposito called me all the time. Lou and Kevin were great. So it certainly wasn’t them. But I didn’t feel any guilt. I mean, I had to take a job! I got a job [with] people I also really liked, and that was it.”
Elsewhere in his “armchair expert” interview, Gunn spoke candidly about how he felt after his Marvel firing, admitting that he thought about the moment his career was over. That, of course, turned out not to be the case. Gunn not only directed “The Suicide Squad” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.
Now, Gunn is about to unleash “Superman” upon the world, and early reactions to the upcoming blockbuster have been overwhelmingly positive so far.
