James Gunn says there are too many superhero movies, says creators aren’t thinking about ‘Why is this story special?’

DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has shared his opinion on both the increasing number of new superhero movies and TV shows, and said that the DC team is going to be “very careful” with the quality of their movies. James also slammed that with the recent superhero movies, the creators have become lazy with the first movie as they only want to create sequels to add it as a franchise. (Also read: James Gunn responds to DC Studios backlash after Henry Cavill’s Superman exit: No one loves to be harassed, called names)

James as DC Studios’ new co-CEO

Earlier in January, James Gunn, who took over DC Studios as their new CEOs with Peter Safran, unveiled a new slate of projects after cutting down on some old ones. The new slate revealed projects namely Waller, which is a spinoff of Gunn’s own HBO Max hit series Peacemaker, Superman: Legacy, The Authority and The Batman sequel.

James Gunn on too many superhero movies

Now, appearing on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, James Gunn called out the increasing number of superhero movies recently as well as the way the creators are developing projects just to add more sequels. When asked if there are too many superhero shows and movies, James said, “Yeah, I do think there’s too many.” He also said, “But I don’t think it’s… It’s much less a problem of too many. And yes… we’re not going to overextend ourselves at DC. We’re going to be very careful with the product that we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.”

Adding to the same line of thought, the filmmaker said that the creators have become lazy. “But I think that what’s happened is, people have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And they make, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see? Or on television?'” he said.

The Chapter 1 slate at DC Studios is set to kickstart with the animated series Creature Commandos and then move ahead with Superman: Legacy which is set for a release date of July 11, 2025.