James Gunn thinks there are "too many" superhero movies.
The genre has dominated the film industry in recent years through both the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' feel that "lazy" storytelling is causing harm.
James told Michael Rosenbaum's 'Inside of You' podcast: "Yeah, I do think there's too many, but I think it's much less a problem of 'too many'.
"I think that what's happened is that people have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. They have gotten to the place where, 'Oh, it's a superhero, let's make a movie about it.' And, 'Oh, let's make a sequel because the first one did pretty well.'
"And they aren't thinking about, why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fulfils a need for people in theatres to go see, or on television?"
James – who co-chairs DC Studios with Peter Safran – is determined to release high-quality movies and hates the thought of making "generic" pictures.
The 56-year-old director said: "We are not going to overextend ourselves at DC. We're going to be very careful with what we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.
"There's this sort of middle-of-the-road type of genre tone that so many superhero movies have, as opposed to having very different genres. I like very serious superhero movies, I like very comedic superhero movies, I like ones that are really just a murder mystery but with superheroes.
"I like to see these different types of stories as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again."
The genre has dominated the film industry in recent years through both the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' feel that "lazy" storytelling is causing harm.
James told Michael Rosenbaum's 'Inside of You' podcast: "Yeah, I do think there's too many, but I think it's much less a problem of 'too many'.
"I think that what's happened is that people have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. They have gotten to the place where, 'Oh, it's a superhero, let's make a movie about it.' And, 'Oh, let's make a sequel because the first one did pretty well.'
"And they aren't thinking about, why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fulfils a need for people in theatres to go see, or on television?"
James – who co-chairs DC Studios with Peter Safran – is determined to release high-quality movies and hates the thought of making "generic" pictures.
The 56-year-old director said: "We are not going to overextend ourselves at DC. We're going to be very careful with what we put out and making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.
"There's this sort of middle-of-the-road type of genre tone that so many superhero movies have, as opposed to having very different genres. I like very serious superhero movies, I like very comedic superhero movies, I like ones that are really just a murder mystery but with superheroes.
"I like to see these different types of stories as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again."