Due largely to the fact he isn’t Zack Snyder and has been tasked with overseeing the latest overhaul for the DCU, James Gunn is constantly coming under fire for virtually every decision he makes, and one of the most popular sticks his detractors use to beat him over the head with is his expanded roster of regular collaborators.
While it’s 100 percent accurate and entirely truthful to say that barely a Gunn project passes by without the involvement of at least one out of Steve Agee, Jennifer Holland, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, or any of his other favored personnel, it’s not as if he’s the only high-profile filmmaker in the industry who prefers to work with people he knows, trusts, and respects.
And yet, after Gunn recently confirmed that he’s planning to continue dipping into his favored contacts when it comes to filling out the DCU, his words were instantly twisted and refitted into some sort of “gotcha” moment.
Needless to say, zeroing in on a regular industry practice to make it look as though Gunn had suddenly shocked the world by confirming he does indeed prefer working with people he’s familiar with led to a flurry of responses that ended up using nothing but the coldest and hardest of facts to tear the sentiment apart at the seams.
It’s an interesting point in general, though, because nobody says anything when either Leonardo DiCaprio or Robert De Niro are announced for the latest Martin Scorsese picture, while esteemed DC veterans Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder are both known for recruiting multiple talents for several projects, if not more. They’re not James Gunn, noted enemy of the SnyderVerse, which is why he gets special treatment.