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‘I wasn’t given the opportunity to make it the way I wanted to make it’: James Gunn offers advice to aspiring directors, instantly gets called a hypocrite

Such is the way of the world, or at least the DC fandom.

james gunn guardians of the galaxy
Image via Marvel Studios

He may have scaled back his social media activity since becoming co-CEO of DC Studios – which is for the best when you’d imagine it’s hard to get any work done in amongst all that rumor debunking – but any time James Gunn un-holsters his itchy keyboard finger, somebody somewhere has a bone to pick.

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It’s become par for the course among the DCU fandom in particular, many of whom will never be able to reconcile with the fact that he isn’t Zack Snyder, nor does he have any interest in continuing on with the mythology laid down by his Dawn of the Dead collaborator.

This time, though, all the Guardians of the Galaxy steward did was offer sage advice to any aspiring directors out there with dreams of wielding a megaphone one day, espousing the words he’s chosen to live his entire career by.

james gunn threads
Image via James Gunn/Threads

Needless to say, it didn’t take long for Gunn to be called out for his hypocrisy after it was decided dredging up an abandoned sci-fi comedy he was planning to make almost 15 years ago was worth stuffing into the conversation, only for the filmmaker and executive to offer a reasonable response of his own.

james-gunn-threads
Image via James Gunn/Threads

Ironically, Warner Bros. and DC have cultivated a reputation for not allowing its creative talent to make the movies they want to make on their own terms, so if anything Gunn’s adamance that he stick to his guns and abandon Pets altogether instead of compromising only strengthens the point he made in the first place.