James Gunn has pushed back on fans who want the DC Universe to hurry toward a big crossover, arguing that films like “Clayface” deserve to stand on their own. Gunn, co-head of DC Studios, took to Threads on Saturday after the horror film reached theaters. A commenter had posted a list of DCU titles, including “Superman,” “Peacemaker,” “Supergirl,” “Creature Commandos,” “Clayface” and “Lanterns,” and asked what it all builds toward. Another user replied that Gunn need not construct one tightly woven universe. Gunn wrote back that he agreed completely, and said he rejects the notion that “individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else.”
In follow-up posts, he described the DCU as an alternate universe the studio can enter at any point in time or place. He said the saga starting with “Superman” runs into “Man of Tomorrow,” due July 9, 2027, and carries characters introduced elsewhere. Those earlier stories, he insisted, do not exist only to feed it. He wants audiences to see “Clayface” as “a great, fun horror movie unto itself,” and not as a down payment on a cameo three films away. Gunn pointed to Star Wars as a precedent for letting stories breathe, though he conceded that franchise lacks the tonal range the DCU has covered, from serious drama to action, comedy and now body horror.
“Clayface,” an R-rated picture directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries, gives him a timely example. Variety critic Guy Lodge called it “its own ugly animal” and suggested its characters might wear thin in a franchise setting, yet work as a single, genre-bending romp. IGN gave it 7 out of 10. Watkins kept the film’s year deliberately vague, in line with a story meant to sit apart from a fixed timeline.
Gunn’s critics see a gap. Some DC watchers argue that he and co-chairman Peter Safran have yet to use the smaller stories to build toward larger team-ups, a charge that carries weight in an era when Marvel trained audiences to expect every release to connect to the next. Gunn’s answer offers no crossover timetable. It does tell fans what to expect from the next standalone entry: a complete story first, and a setup second.
