Ever since it was conceived, part of the deal with James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe has been that it’s more standalone than rival Marvel’s more integrated MCU.
While characters and stories can cross over, such as in the upcoming “Man of Tomorrow,” it can vary in tone much more wildly – thus allowing for a film like this weekend’s R-rated body horror film “Clayface”.
This has led to debates about whether a film like that should really be compared to a film like “Superman,” and whether the DCU should be building toward a payoff like Marvel did with its first three phases of films.
Gunn has taken to social media channel Threads to share his thoughts on those criticisms, saying:
“DCU is just an alternate universe; we can enter at any location or time and tell THAT story. I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else. People not understanding this is strange to me, because Star Wars has essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games, and books, admittedly without the tonal variety. Now, this doesn’t mean there isn’t connectivity.
The Superman Saga starts with ‘Superman‘ and travels into ‘Man of Tomorrow‘ and onward, and contains many characters we’ve introduced in other stories. But that doesn’t mean those other stories only exist to set up what’s happening there. I would love people to be seeing ‘Clayface’ because it’s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now.”
Gunn recently teased that he’s already starting to write his next mystery script, while films based on “Wonder Woman,” “Swamp Thing” and “Teen Titans” are on the way.
