Director James Gunn talks about giving his VFX artists “time to do their jobs”

James Gunn

Film director and DC Studios CEO James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy series) stated in Instagram’s Threads post yesterday that VFX partners for his films won’t have to face a time crunch while finishing production on the studio’s films.

Stating his approach towards VFX pipelines for films produced by DC Studios, Gunn said, “If you do some research you’ll see my films have always taken a different approach and I’ve always given my VFX artist-collaborators time to do their jobs properly, and the respect they deserve. And the quality of the VFX in those films is uniformly great because of it (and because my friends at Weta and Framestore and ILM and more are amazingly talented).”

He further said, “This is why we wrapped on Superman a year before release and why they’ve been hard at work on many shots for months before that. This is why we start heartily editing during the shoot. It’s why I prepare so vigorously and why we only shoot finished screenplays.”

Gunn added that this approach is also being taken towards the film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which he isn’t directing. “I can’t praise the VFX artists that help us create magic enough,” his post stated.

Gunn’s upcoming Superman: Legacy stars David Corenswet (Pearl, Twisters) as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Terence Rosemore as Otis, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica / The Engineer, Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt / Mr. Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason / Metamorpho, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant, and Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe. Comics like Jeph Loeb’s Superman for All Seasons and Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman are to be the key inspirations for the film as stated by Gunn on X (formerly Twitter). It is being co-written by Jerry Seigel, Joe Shuster and Gunn himself. The film is set to release theatrically on 11 July 2025.  

Supergirl is being directed by Craig Gillespie and will star Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, the lead character.

Gunn, who previously directed DC projects like The Suicide Squad (2021) and Max Original series Peacemaker (2022-present), was hired by Warner Bros. Discovery as the co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios in 2022 alongside British film producer Peter Safran. Gunn acts as a co-producer and executive producer for every film and television series under the DC Universe franchise. The new DC Universe is a soft reboot of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) franchise.