There’s a new superhero cinematic universe in town, and it is not interested in doing what Marvel Studios has done with its own, according to DCU head James Gunn. In a conversation with actor Rainn Wilson, his collaborator on the 2010 dark superhero satire Super, the writer-director explained that DC’s rebooted universe is taking a different approach. To people who say that “the DCU is doing what [the] MCU is” Gunn answers that his vision “is a lot more to me what the Game of Thrones world is like or what Star Wars is like, because we’re building a universe and then picking out little pieces of it and telling individual stories from that universe.”
“There is not a New York City in our DCU. There is not a Los Angeles in our DCU. There is Metropolis, Evergreen, and Coast City,” Gunn said. “It’s a different map. It’s a world in which some form of superheroes, which we call Metahumans, have existed for at least 300 years and they’ve been a part of our life. But I think that we’re reaching a point in the DCU where there’s three factions. There’s the Metahumans, the governments, and then the corporations. […] There’s Luthor Corp, there’s Lord Tech and Stagg Industries and Wayne Enterprises, which are the four big companies that are vying for another type of domination.”
Gunn then went on to say these industries aren’t inherently evil, just extremely immoral, explaining Lex Luthor’s place in the world, and his eventual turn to evil.
“I guess governments are amoral too. But it’s really more dependent on the morality of the figurehead. In this case, Lex Luthor’s a pretty bad guy, although his corporation has done some great things,” Gunn explains. “Luthor has created a battery, which has made the running of the world a much more efficient process. He has cars that run more efficiently, that are better for clean air. He’s done some really great things for the world, which is the reason for his obsession with Superman. He was considered the greatest guy in the world a few years ago, even though there were Metahumans, and then this guy with dimples and a glint in his eye in a silly costume came in and made him feel like shit, so he’s been sort of obsessed with him ever since and has gone evil.”
That explains why Luthor’s schemes are inherently petty in Superman (2025), because his hatred for Superman stems from that same place. Gunn also points to Maxwell Lord, who we meet in Superman (2025) and again in the first episode of season 2 of Peacemaker, “He’s not the greatest guy in the world, but as far as billionaires go, he’s probably more on the right side of things than Lex Luthor.”
Gunn seems less focused on massive cosmic showdowns with aliens and intergalactic threats, and more intent on using the multiverse as a framework for contained, character-driven stories. At its core, the DCU appears to center on metahumans clashing with governments and corporations, a conflict that feels far more grounded (at least by superhero standards) than fending off alien invasions or reality-bending tyrants. It’s less about superhero fatigue and more about exhaustion with endless multiverse spectacles, and it seems Gunn has taken that to heart.