On the tails of becoming one of the heads of the DCU at Warner Bros. (WB), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn has now revealed when he’ll be officially departing Marvel Studios.
Gunn has been a part of the MCU family since he first launched Guardians back in 2014. Eight years later, after a brief road bump with Disney, he’s not only done several more projects with those characters but he’s also given the DCU a movie (The Suicide Squad) and television series (Peacemaker).
As announced back in October, he, alongside Peter Safran, will be the co-head of the newly-formed Marvel rival studio, DC Studios. This change begs the question: when will leave Gunn be done with Marvel Studios?
The director has now given the answer.
When Will James Gunn Depart From Marvel Studios?
In a new Twitter post, DCU Head Boss and The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (GOTG 3) director James Gunn revealed when his days at Marvel Studios will officially be over.
Gun stated that he is "both DC and Marvel... until May [2023]" when Vol. 3 premieres and completes its promotional tour.
"As was made clear in all press, until May, I am both DC & Marvel. I've dedicated the majority of the past 10 years of my life to the Guardians trilogy, & I'm not abandoning them or the thousands of people who worked on them at the 11th hour. The world won't end if you love both."
Some fans, ridiculously enough, got angry with Gunn over being on both sides.
@armnm10 screamed that "[he is] of DC, NO Marvel!!!," while @Handsome_Wolf stood up to declare that "If [he] was David Zaslav, [he would] cut part of his salary promoting the competition."
Don't be those people.
Of course, Gunn will be both Marvel and DCU until GOTG 3 releases. Did fans think he was simply going to abandon the conclusion to his Guardians trilogy just like that? Simply put, it's insane to have thought he would.
Furthermore, as Gunn stated above, and as something more fans need to hear: "the world won't end if you love both."
While the two companies may have inherent competition in the products they sell, it doesn't mean someone is only allowed to like or the other. It's rather childish to think that way, especially since the same sentiment has been expressed repeatedly.
If Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige can declare that "[he'll be the] first in line" to watch what Gunn does to the DCU, then anyone should be able to understand how it's okay to be a fan of both.
A Bright Future for DCU
While it sucks that Marvel Studios will be losing the talents of James Gunn, it's at least a win for the DCU, which has been having a rough go of it lately (just take a look at what happened with Batgirl).
Gunn has promised that their new plan for the cinematic universe would tell "the Biggest Story Ever Told." Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav also seems to be pleased with their work so—and they've only held the position for roughly three weeks at this point.
Given Gunn's affinity for niche characters, such as Bat-Mite, fans should probably expect a little more of that than usual. Though hopefully, those tendencies won't stop him from working on getting the core Justice League together one more time—hopefully, in a successful movie this time around.
For those that are sad about the director leaving the MCU, there are still two Guardians of the Galaxy projects to look forward to from the filmmaker. The first is The Holiday Special, which drops next week on Disney+, and the second is none other than Vol. 3, which lands in theaters on May 3, 2023.
