With “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” appearing in theatres on May 5, James Gunn continues his last days of press duties with Marvel. James Gunn has taken over the direction of the DC superhero movie franchise. He will do that full-time after Marvel press duties conclude.

James Gunn has completed the work for the script for his upcoming “Superman: Legacy” movie coming out in the summer of 2025. He is about to progress through the press junkets for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” Before transitioning to DC full-time, he will often speak about the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie for press events.

“I really want Marvel to keep making good movies,” Gunn said in an interview about this exit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “I think it’s really hard in the wake of the Blip. There’s this worldwide, universe-wide event that happened. And in truth, everybody would be stark raving mad at this point. So it’s hard to write stories in the wake of that. Which is why the ‘Guardians’ movies have been easier, because they’re set outside of that a little bit.”

The Blip

The “Blip” he mentioned refers to the five years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that happened when the villain Thanos won at eh conclusion of “Avengers: Infinity War.” In that narrative, Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to “snap” half the universe’s population out of existence. In subsequent movies, half the universe returns five years after the Marvel superheroes save the universe. This comic book catastrophe’s plot problems and expected chaos led to interesting logic problems for Marvel Cinematic Universe writers.

For Gunn, the ending of “Avengers: Endgame” posed a different conundrum, concluding with the Guardians of the Galaxy members linking up with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor.

“[Marvel] chose to have that ending in editing,” Gunn said. “And I didn’t think it was gonna be in there. ‘Endgame’ came out right after I decided to do ‘Guardians’ again. So I didn’t have much say in what was in ‘Endgame,’ Gunn expressed that he had no idea what to do with the new wrinkle.

Nevertheless, Taika Waititi’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” quickly did away with Thor and the Guardians teaming up. Thor went his own way in the film, leaving the door open for Gunn to write “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” without Thor.

“When [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] told me, ‘Taika’s gonna do Thor, and we’ll have the Guardians in it.’ I said, ‘Thank God!’” Gunn said. “To be completely honest, Thor was never going to be in this movie. Taika took a bullet for me. Because I was not going to have him in. I was just gonna start up and there’s no Thor.”

James Gunn Speaks About Superhero Fatigue

In this same interview published by Variety and other outlets, Gunn received a question about superhero movie fatigue. He responded, “I think there is such a thing as superhero fatigue,” Gunn told Rolling Stone. “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. And if it becomes just a bunch of nonsense onscreen, it gets really boring.”

“I get fatigued by most spectacle films, by the grind of not having an emotionally grounded story,” Gunn added. “It doesn’t have anything to do with whether they’re superhero movies or not. If you don’t have a story at the base of it, just watching things bash each other, no matter how clever those bashing moments are, no matter how clever the designs and the VFX are, it just gets fatiguing, and I think that’s very, very real.”

Are you looking forward to “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3?” How do you think Janes Gunn will do leading the DC superhero movies? Let us know in the comments below.