James Gunn has ‘casually’ talked to Marvel and DC about film crossover: ‘I don’t think it’s an impossibility’

If there’s any filmmaker who could bridge the DC/Marvel divide, it’s James Gunn. Right? The director who has made blockbusters in both camps says he’s talked to the rival studios about a crossover — but admits the odds of it happening aren’t high. Just don’t get your hopes up.

Gunn, who has the new DC flick The Suicide Squad dropping this summer, has never been shy about chatting with fans on social media. So when the topic of a potential big screen crossover between his Suicide Squad team and his Marvel super-team from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies came up, Gunn revealed he’s actually brought it up to the decision-makers.

Admittedly, he knows the odds of getting these two studios on the same page at some point is a long shot, but it’s fascinating to know the chats have at least taken place at some point. Of course, as comic fans know, DC and Marvel have met up on the page before (and comic creators were lobbying for it to happen again as recently as a few months ago) — though the rights issues on the film side obviously make that prospect a whole lot more complicated if both sides were to ever seriously consider it.

Not surprisingly, Gunn is most interested in finding a good story to potentially mash these worlds together, but admits it would be cool to get those separate toy boxes mixed up at some point on the big screen. Obviously, the chances of this actually ever happening are slim. Both studios have their own big cinematic universes that make plenty of money on their own for now. 

But we’ve seen studios like Sony and Disney come to terms to share characters like Spider-Man (though admittedly those are all Marvel characters in the first place, just owned by different studios), so there’s a precedent if there’s enough money to be made by everyone. If it ever does happen, here’s hoping they do get someone like Gunn involved to navigate the inherent storytelling complexities.

Years down the line, though? Who knows? Give it a decade or two, when folks have grown used to the Justice League and Avengers teaming up a few more times — what better way to get fans excited again than having them actually meet one another to face a foe that requires all of the comics world to unite and squash it? Maybe Galactus and Thanos make a cross-universe deal with Darkseid and Lex Luthor?

Is it silly? Sure. But yeah, we’d watch that.