James Gunn has brought me much joy in my life. Both Guardians of the Galaxy films are treasured in my household – they’re the reason my wife and I chose “Hooked on a Feeling” as our wedding song – and I thoroughly enjoyed his DC projects, The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. In fact, I made genuine attempts to learn the dance from the Peacemaker opening, and those would-be TikTok videos will forever remain in my Drafts.
But the world wasn’t exactly sure what to think of Gunn just a few years ago. He was fired by Marvel Studios when some unfortunate older tweets were resurfaced and circulated in the summer of 2018. The since-deleted posts were intentionally “edgy” and, as such, were not only in bad taste at the time but aged horrifically.
Gunn’s Marvel ousting resulted in him being brought into the DC fold for the aforementioned Suicide Squad sequel/reboot, which made sense given Gunn’s affinity for heroic-but-not-always-morally-sound misfits. Additionally, though, Gunn and Marvel’s eventual reconciliation resulted in a third Guardians film and a holiday special. Gunn also continued to build on John Cena’s Peacemaker character with an outstanding HBO Max series. Rarely has a creator had his foot planted in both the MCU and DCEU, but Gunn has managed to do it.
That all leads us to today, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022, when Marvel
Studios dropped an amazing trailer for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday
Special that gives us an aged-up (and buff?) Groot, a holiday adventure on Earth
and “The Legendary” Kevin Bacon. While fans reveled in Drax and Mantis breaking
into the Footloose star’s home as part of a kidnapping “Christmas present,” DC had
a reveal of their own, as broken by The Hollywood Reporter: Gunn will serve as co-CEO of DC Studios alongside producer Peter Safran. They’ll be replacing former
DC Films head Walter Hamada, who left the studio last week. Whether or not that
has something to do with the chilly critical reception to Black Adam is anyone’s
guess.
Given Gunn’s comedic sensibilities, I can imagine
that him heading up creative for DC Studios has grimdark-favorable Zack Snyder
fans foaming at the mouth (I’m sure there’s already a Twitter petition out
there calling for his removal). And yet, on the heels of Henry Cavill formally announcing
that he’s back as Superman with more projects to come, perhaps Gunn will be the
person to bring DC’s film universe into the light … and keep it there.
Speaking of light, check out the trailer for Marvel Studios’ The Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special below!
