James Gunn Is Leaving Superman: Legacy, Here’s Why
James Gunn is reportedly stepping away from Superman: Legacy for at least the duration of the WGA strike.
Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a…blank page? That’s right, James Gunn, writer and director of the still-in-pre-production Superman: Legacy, might be walking away from his laptop for a while, but it’s not what you think. As Fandomwire reports, The Guardians of the Galaxy director is most likely abandoning work temporarily on Legacy as a show of solidarity with the current Writers Guild of America strike.
While James Gunn hasn’t said anything publically about hitting pause on Superman: Legacy, or the WGA strike in general, industry insiders are confident the co-head of DC Studios and WGA member will be siding with the picketers. “So James Gunn’s writing Superman: Legacy. So, he won’t be able to continue,” says Jeff Sneider, host of The Hot Mic podcast. Sneider went on to admit that it’s possible Gunn has already finished the script but that even in that scenario, James won’t “cross the picket line even as an executive.”
Sneider expanded upon that sentiment stating that James Gunn will be handing his day-to-day work at DC Studios over to his partner Peter Safran, at least until the WGA and Hollywood can work out a deal. What that means for the recently revealed slate of DC projects titled Chapter One: Gods and Monsters is really anyone’s guess, but it certainly won’t have a positive effect on the new DCU. Most of the upcoming projects James Gunn has announced, including Superman: Legacy, are assumed to be in early development, meaning they’re most likely still in the writing phase, which is bad news for Warner Bros.
The strike is thought to be the result of the WGA’s beef with Netflix and other streaming services. Streamers keep raising prices, but none of that extra dough has found its way into the writer’s pockets. In response, The Writer’s Guild demanded more pay for the increased workloads they’re currently shouldering to keep up with the constant demand for new content.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers denied the Guild’s demands, hence the strike. It’s not surprising Gunn would side with the writers since that’s where his career began. Before James Gunn was co-running DC Studios and developing high-profile projects like Superman: Legacy, he was a writer for hire, penning the screenplays for the two live-action Scooby-Doo films and Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, among several others.
James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy was previously expected to be released on July 11, 2025 but thanks to Gunn’s loyalty to his fellow WGA members will most likely be delayed. The film is thought to be inspired by Grant Morrison’s fan-favorite series All-Star Superman and won’t be as comedic in tone as the bulk of Gunn’s other work.
Morrison’s series was a celebration of all things Superman set outside the main DC continuity and focused on a dying Man of Steel as he spends his remaining days performing one last round of heroic feats. Superman: Legacy would no doubt change the part about Supes dying as James Gunn intends for the film to be the crown jewel in a new ongoing DC cinematic universe. What Gunn would presumably take from All-Star Superman would be the series distillation of Superman into his core essence: a nice guy with the powers of a god and the morals of a midwestern farmboy who just wants to make the world a better place.
Hopefully, the writer’s strike will be over fairly quickly, and James Gunn can get back to work on Superman: Legacy as soon as possible.
