DC Co-Head James Gunn: Superhero Fatigue is Real

We know that superhero films make a lot of money at the box office, but entries like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! 2 have started to show that audiences are kind of getting tired of superhero movies.

With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 blowing up at the box office though, some fans think that superhero movies could be ‘back’, but director James Gunn, who is also the new co-head of DC Studios, says that superhero fatigue is a very real thing.

Talking to Rolling Stone, Gunn explains, “I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue… I think it doesn’t have anything to do with superheroes… It has to do with the kind of stories that get to be told, and if you lose your eye on the ball, which is character. We love Superman. We love Batman. We love Iron Man. Because they’re these incredible characters that we have in our hearts.”

When it comes to the dwindling numbers of recent superhero entries, Gunn comments, “If it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring… But I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not.”

Though Marvel has pretty much been unstoppable over the past few years, only recently has the studio been looking at some poorly mixed reception from back-to-back releases. Hopefully they figure out a way to get out of this funk, but until then, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with each release.

Catch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 now showing in theaters.