There is a secret battle unfurling behind the scenes in Hollywood. Zack Snyder, who directed a Superman movie in 2013, is attempting to relaunch his take on the DC universe, using loyal executives and Henry Cavill to insert himself into Warner Bros.’ agenda. However, James Gunn is out to stop him at every turn, having usurped the role at the head of the DCU from Snyder thanks to John Cena and several movie reviewers who are already deeply in the pockets of Disney and Kathleen Kennedy. Gunn and Snyder are now in an epic showdown as Gunn attempts to launch a new DCU era while Snyder attempts to thwart him.
Or, ya know, all of that is nonsense and the two are just friends, former co-workers, and co-stars on the newest episode of Rick & Morty.
While everything I wrote up top may seem aggressively dumb (because it is), just do a quick scan on YouTube and you’ll find numerous channels pushing similar theories (or worse). But the reality is much more mundane. Snyder was dicked over by Warner Bros., but that has nothing to do with James Gunn. John Cena was a big part of Gunn getting the head DCU job, but that was in addition to him having a clear idea and experience in a similar kind of machine. The duo are friends, have been for some time, and are big Rick & Morty fans.
That fandom hit a new level this past Sunday when they both appeared, as themselves, in a new episode of the animated show. The plot involved the titular characters being annoyed that Gunn was ruining their favorite franchise about robotic super trees. Gunn ends up becoming the antagonist of the episode, poking fun at himself, and, at one point, running into a creotine devouring Snyder in the Warner Bros. cafeteria. The scene is a lot of fun, and even includes Snyder mocking his penchant for slo-mo. According to executive producer Scott Marder, both directors were gung-ho about the whole endeavor.
“They were good sports,” Marder explained to Variety. “Both of those guys sort of implied that this is the show they watch when they have downtime. So they were thrilled to get to be a part of the world, and there was no pushback or bristling. If anything, they laughed at anything we threw at them. There were probably, frankly, even more digs and more silly things we could have used. All they did was laugh it off.” People have assumed Snyder is a Rick & Morty fan since he included footage on Barry Allen’s TV in Justice League, but I believe this is the first time Gunn has been outed as a fan of the show. But Marder says that it also came through in his enthusiasm.
“We were like, if we’re going to do a movie and we’re going skewer Hollywood, we feel like we have to include our bosses,” Marder noted. “So we started thinking about Warner Bros. Who’d be a good face to be kind of the villain here? James Gunn just seemed like such a good choice. We were all pretty sure that whenever Schrab reached out to Gunn, he would be a million percent in the middle of doing Superman. But he not only did he respond instantly with a yes, but I think he ran it up the chain at Warner Bros. that same day. We had people on our production side who were like, ‘How is it that James Gunn and Zaslav and all these people already know about this episode?’ We didn’t think it would actually move this quickly.”
Zaslav getting a front row seat to stuff like this annoys me greatly, but at least he didn’t get in its way. And to be fair, whether Gunn is a fan or not, this is beneficial to him and his movie (and Snyder and his image). Being good sports and goofing on yourself is good PR. It is also just using another wing of the company he’s releasing a movie for to promote said movie. That’s classic synergy. But, if it results in silly jokes about Snyder slowing things down for no reason and Gunn taking the DCU gig so he can “give [him]self notes on Batman,” then count me in.
