Critics Call for James Gunn's Head as #FireJamesGunn Trend Takes Off
It was just one tweet by the DC Studios co-boss that has set the DC universe fandom on fire.
"Making plans," James Gunn tweeted in the end of November showing a picture of superheroes with Superman in spotlight standing at the table. Actually, it was an image from the legendary DC comic Kingdom Come, created by DC artist Alex Ross.
However, when the DC universe fans have found out what exactly Gunn's plans are they rose up. The tweet at the time of the writing has got 13k retweets, 140k likes and was quoted more than 4 thousand times.
A new vision for the DC universe came as a shock. The Black Adam sequel was cancelled just like Wonder Woman 3 while the Aquaman series has sent off Jason Momoa so that he could be recast as another character. Man of Steel 2 is no longer in active development. And finally the future of Henry Cavill's role as Superman within the DCEU also hangs in the balance despite his cameo in Black Adam.
This was enough for the fans to launch an offensive. In the recent hours their hashtag #FireJamesGunn has been gaining traction across Twitter because the fans believe the man must be stopped before it's too late. They keep posting images of their DCEU characters protecting their universe from the menace James Gunn is emanating.
"Gunn is destroying DC!" reads one of the tweets featuring Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman as the most powerful guardians of the DC universe. "Heads need to roll," says another tweet. "He's a Trojan Horse trying to destroy DC for Marvel," echoes another DC fan referring to Gunn's past tenure as Marvel's director and co-writer.
The #FireJamesGunn hashtag comes together with #BringBackZackSnyder as the fans refuse to accept the future changes and want to reinstate Snyder who they believe is the only director who has understood the potential of DC's characters.
Many more tweets and memes will certainly follow shortly as this seems to be only the beginning of a powerful storm. One should not be surprised with the recent news though. It was hardly a secret that Gunn and Safran have their own vision for the DC Universe and they were quite open about their masterplan, which is the complete overhaul of the universe.
"All our initial focus is on the story going forward, hammering out the new DCU, & telling the Biggest Story Ever Told across multiple films, television shows, & animated projects," the DC Studios co-boss tweeted out early in November.
Whether he will be able to hammer out the new DCU is a big question. At least, the first steps on this path seem to be quite hard to make.