James Gunn Says ‘I'm Irritated by People' Outraged Over ‘The Batman 2' Delay: ‘Get Off Matt Reeves' Nuts… He Doesn't Owe You Something Because You Like His Movie'
'Listen, we're supposed to get a script in June. I hope that happens. We feel really good about it,' Gunn said. 'People should get off Matt's nuts because it's like, let the guy write the screenplay in the amount of time he needs to write it. That's just the way it is. He doesn't owe you something because you like his movie. I mean, you like his movie because of Matt. So let Matt do things the way he does.'
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'I am irritated by people,' Gunn continued. 'I mean, it's just that thing people don't need to be entitled about. It's going to come out when he feels good about the screenplay. And Matt's not going to give me the screenplay until he feels good about the screenplay.'
Gunn has also made it clear in several interviews that he will never go into production on a movie at DC Studios until the script is finished. The director went so far as to say that the 'No. 1 reason' the film industry is dying is 'because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.'
It's been a long development road for 'The Batman 2,' which Warner Bros. delayed last year from Oct. 2, 2026 to Oct. 1, 2027. The first movie opened in theaters in March 2022 and grossed $772 million at the worldwide box office. Gunn previously defended the delay on social media by writing: 'To be fair, a 5-year gap or more is fairly common in sequels. 7 years between 'Alien' and 'Aliens.' 14 years between 'Incredibles.' 7 years between the first two 'Terminators.' 13 years between 'Avatars.' 36 years between 'Top Guns.' And, of course, 6 years between 'Guardians Vol 2' and 'Vol 3.''
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Gunn said that he is pulling back a bit from using his social media platforms like Threads to debunk countless incorrect rumors about his projects and those he's developing at DC Studios.
'I've kind of quit because it just happens so often,' he explained. 'There are a couple of people, specifically, who have pretty large followings who just consistently put out false stories, just one after the other after the other, 95% of the time. Maybe once out of every 20 times, they say something that has some slight or partial basis in reality. And it gets to be old. I'm not sure, some of those people, that I'm not actually helping them in a certain way by debunking them, because you're giving them traffic, which I always do, but I think they like it. So I mostly quit.'
Gunn's 'Superman' opens in theaters July 11 from Warner Bros.
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