Guardians Of The Galaxy’s James Gunn decries Hollywood’s shared-universe trend

By Dan Selcke | November 24, 2014 | 11:47pm

Aux Features Film

In a post-Avengers world, a lot of studios seem to be asking themselves why they should only make one movie when they could make three or eight or several dozen about the same topic. Marvel, the progenitor of this obsession, has films revolving around its interconnected properties planned through at least 2028, with Warner Bros. scrambling to amass its own pile of movies based on DC Comics properties in response. Meanwhile, Star Wars is coming back to theaters with several spinoffs in tow, and Sony is doing its damnedest to wring a universe of movies out of its Spider-Man franchise.

Whether you’re thrilled to live in this new golden age or appalled by the opportunism of it all, you’re probably going to have to live with it for a while, at least until Universal—having followed through on its plan to make an Avengers-style universe populated by old movie monsters—is forced into bankruptcy after no one sees its $300 million remake of Creature From The Black Lagoon. Joining those in the ‘appalled’ camp is Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn, who recently took to Facebook to call out the studios for adhering to what he sees as a flawed business model.

At first glance, it may seem hypocritical for the guy who made Guardians Of The Galaxy, a successful Marvel franchise pretty much destined to intersect with the other movies in that universe, to put down this kind of thinking. But on closer inspection, Gunn’s main problem seems to be with movie universes being willed into existence despite evidence that nobody wants them, something that can’t be said of the (very successful) Marvel movies. His thoughts are well-reasoned and worth a look, although we can probably give up hope that he’ll ever direct The Guardians Of The Galaxy Meet The Avengers.

Join the discussion...