{"id":665513,"date":"2026-10-26T04:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/665513\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T04:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:12:12","slug":"james-gunn-defends-dcus-individual-stories-like-clayface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/665513\/","title":{"rendered":"James Gunn Defends DCU’s Individual Stories Like ‘Clayface’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Gunn<\/a> took to Threads<\/a> on Saturday to defend the DCU<\/a> and his decision to expand the universe with \u201cindividual stories\u201d amid criticism that his films aren\u2019t building toward a major crossover event. <\/p>\n

\n\tResponding to a commenter who pointed out that Gunn doesn\u2019t necessarily need to lay the foundation for one totally interconnected universe, the DC Studios co-head wrote, \u201cI couldn\u2019t agree more.\u201d \u201cDCU 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\u2019t meaningful unless they lead to something else. People not understanding this is strange to me, because \u2018Star Wars\u2019 has essentially been doing this for 50 years across movies, shows, games and books, admittedly without the tonal variety,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

\n\tGunn pointed out that this approach doesn\u2019t mean there isn\u2019t any connectivity, adding that the \u201cSuperman\u201d saga begins with \u201cSuperman\u201d and extends into \u201cMan of Tomorrow,\u201d \u201cand contains many characters we\u2019ve introduced in other stories.\u201d \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean those other stories only exist to set up what\u2019s happening there. I would love people to be seeing \u2018Clayface\u2019 because it\u2019s a great, fun horror movie unto itself, not because of where else Clayface will show up three movies from now,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the post that Gunn responded to, the user had replied to an image that listed out his DC Universe foundation \u2014 \u201cSuperman,\u201d \u201cPeacemaker,\u201d \u201cSupergirl,\u201d \u201cCreature Commandos,\u201d \u201cClayface\u201d and \u201cLanters\u201d \u2014 followed by the text: \u201cWhat is this building towards???\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cClayface,\u201d which his theaters on Friday, is Gunn\u2019s latest DCU installment, following 2025\u2019s \u201cSuperman\u201d and this year\u2019s \u201cSupergirl.\u201d (Ahead of the film\u2019s release, comic fans pointed out that the character, who has never been the subject of a standalone feature film, is a considerably nicher choice than previous DCU films.) It generated $24 million from 3,458 North American theaters in its debut, comfortably taking the No. 1 spot at the box office.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by James Watkins, \u201cClayface\u201d follows the titular Batman villain, a rising movie star also known as Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), who volunteers for a highly experimental medical procedure after his face is severely disfigured. Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan also star. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tVariety\u2019s<\/a> Guy Lodge called the film \u201cits own ugly animal; perhaps the characters and conflicts introduced here would pall if given the franchise treatment, but in the context of a single, genre-melding romp, they\u2019re fresh and ickily enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGunn\u2019s next film, \u201cSuperman: Man of Tomorrow<\/a>,\u201d hits theaters July 9, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Gunn took to Threads on Saturday to defend the DCU and his decision to expand the universe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[16179,93,61,60,4208,270],"class_list":["post-665513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-dcu","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-gunn","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}