James Gunn has shared new details about what inspired his vision for the new DC Universe, and surprisingly, it’s not the Marvel movies.
In a
recent interview with Omelete
, Gunn explained that when building the DCU, he looked to
Game of Thrones
and
Star Wars
as his main sources of inspiration. He said that
Game of Thrones
, especially the original books written by George R.R. Martin, shaped how he thinks about the structure of the DCU.
“Game of Thrones, not just the show but the books, is what we’re using as a reference for the DCU,”
Gunn said.
“The DCU is not the MCU. The MCU is kind of our world. It has New York, it has this city or that city, with superheroes in the middle. The DCU is a different universe. Slightly different, slightly transformed.”
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That means Gunn doesn’t want to simply copy the Marvel formula. Instead, he wants DC to feel like its own world, one that doesn’t rely on real-life cities or follow a single, connected storyline. He also said that the opening of
Superman
will have a
Star Wars
-style intro crawl, further showing how different this new universe is going to be.
“At the same time, I also draw a lot of inspiration from Star Wars, Game of Thrones and other things that tell different stories within the same continuity. It’s not about telling just one story,”
he added.
That idea, telling different stories in the same world—has always been a big part of what made
Game of Thrones
stand out. The show (and the books) didn’t focus on just one hero or a single storyline. Instead, it followed many different characters in separate locations, each with their own problems, goals, and adventures. Some of those storylines would cross over, but most developed on their own.
Gunn seems to want the same thing for the DCU. Rather than have every movie tightly connected from the start, he plans to let each character’s story stand on its own. So a Superman movie, a Batman movie, or a Supergirl movie might all be very different in tone and story, but they’ll still exist in the same shared world.
Over time, these individual films could come together for a big event, similar to how comic books often bring characters from different titles together for major crossover events.
This could be a smart move for DC, which has struggled to create a consistent tone or direction for its movies in the past. By starting with separate stories and slowly building up to something larger, Gunn may give each hero room to shine on their own before bringing them all together.
In my opinion, using
Game of Thrones
as a guide is a bold and interesting choice. It shows that Gunn wants the DCU to be more like an epic, wide-reaching world instead of just following the Marvel style. What do you think about this approach? Let us know in the comments!
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