Film director James Gunn, most widely known for his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise with Marvel Studios, is taking on Superman, having just completed the newest installment of the Man of Steel. Gunn, having recently released the first teaser trailer for the movie, compared its opening scene of the most well recognized superhero of all-time being battered and bruised to the current condition of the United States.
The comments, according to The Daily Wire, were made just after the trailer’s release last week. “We do have a battered Superman in the beginning. That is our country,” Gunn remarked during a press conference.
“I believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs, their politics, are doing their best to get by and be good people — despite what it may seem like to the other side, no matter what that other side might be,” he went on to add. “This movie is about that. It’s about the basic kindness of human beings, and that it can be seen as uncool and under siege [by] some of the darker voices are some of the louder voices.”
“I’m excited for people to get to see the essence of what we’re doing because it really has been like this private secret that we’ve all been hoarding,” Gunn said in an interview with Variety of the new film, which is scheduled for release on July 11.
“We felt really good about it, like from a moral place, even from the beginning. We all felt like we were doing something good, both in terms of quality and in terms of actually something that’s not a fascistic power fantasy,” Gunn commented.
“I’m not saying that about other hero movies in general. But it felt good to be doing something that was about a person’s kindness,” he continued during the conversation.
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I honestly don’t have a problem with his statement. There are “darker elements” on both sides of the political spectrum who hate the very notion of people with different ideologies finding common ground and connecting with each other. Yet, that’s exactly the kind of country we used to be, before the likes of Barack Obama and Joe Biden came along.
If we want our society to survive, we must get back to that place. And if that truly is the message Gunn wants to send with Superman, then I’m on board. Let’s hope he’s being true to his word.