Det er vist ingen hemmelighed at superheltefilm ikke har helt samme jerngreb om biografgængerne som de havde engang, og både Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam 2 og seneste The Flash har demonstreret dette.
Men spørger du den nye DC-chef, James Gunn, så skyldes det også at kreativiteten er gået fløjten, og at disse film laves ud fra en alt for specifik skabelon. I den seneste udgave af podcastet Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum fortæller Gunn at han synes at mange superheltefilm er direkte dovne i dag.
"People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories. They have gotten to the place where, 'Oh, it's a superhero, let's make a movie about it.' And then, 'Oh, let's make a sequel because the first one did pretty well'. They aren't thinking about, 'Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theaters to go see?'"
Mere specifikt kalder han dem generiske, og peger på særlige problematikker i tredje akt, noget som superheltefilm også ofte kritiseres for:
"People have gotten a little lazy and there's a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies. I'm watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don't feel like there's a rhyme or reason to what's happening... I don't care about the characters. And they've gotten too generic."
Gunn står til at instruere den kommende Superman: Legacy, der i 2025 skal sparke gang i et nyt DC-filmunivers.