DC’s James Gunn Hates Meaningless Superhero Film Cameos

This filmmaker isn’t shy about sharing his opinion on social media. DC’s James Gunn made it clear that he hates meaningless superhero film cameos.

The subject came up in regards to his upcoming Superman: Legacy, the film that will relaunch the DC Universe under his and Peter Safran’s watchful eye. The film already has an extensively stacked cast with David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, but it’s also got a list of confirmed actors playing a laundry list of superheroes, ranging from big names like Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion as Gur Gardner) to C-list characters like Mister Fantastic (Edi Gathegi). That would make anyone believe that Gunn was stacking the film with a ton of cameos, and despite his track record of making great superhero movies stuffed with comic book characters, that could be worrying.

In response to a ComicBook.com article on this very subject in which he vehemently defends the large cast and promises that these parts aren’t just cameos, Gunn continued to express how much he dislikes cameo stuffing in a series of Threads, starting off by defending the fact that the film’s cast is not actually all that large.

“The whole point was it’s NOT a large film – I mean, not in terms of cast,” he said. “It’s normal for single protagonist films to have other characters – much more unusual for them not to.” He then followed this up by saying, “I call that ‘Cameo Porn’ and it has been one of the worst elements of recent superhero films. If a character is in film, they have to have a reason to be there story-wise.”

Gunn finished up by saying, “I don’t mind actual cameos – if it’s a glimpse or a moment, an Easter egg. What bothers me is when they mangle an elegant story by shoehorning characters in – they aren’t there because the story calls for it, but for some other reason.”

Clearly, these are some shots fired at Marvel and Gunn’s DC predecessors, who have both relentlessly crammed in cameos to help expand the universe instead of the film’s story. We’ll have to see how this all plays out for Gunn’s new cinematic universe, but it doesn’t sound like Guy Gardner is just going to fly by and wave to Superman at the end of the film for no reason.