And Gunn fucked it up because he didn't want any usurper impinging on his master plans. I will never forgive Gunn for that.
James Gunn definitely has two major flaws hurt his take on the DCU..
First, he's incredibly nepotistic.
Sure, that has its perks — his actors genuinely seem to love working with him, and many even defended him when he was fired. But the downside is clear: he'll absolutely choose someone he can be drinking buddies with over a more talented actor he simply doesn’t like.
The second flaw is that he wants the entire DC Universe to be his — his vision, his voice, his characters. He clearly wants to do
his version of Batman, even if we already have a perfectly good and popular one with Battison. It’s perfect except that it isn’t “his.” On a podcast, he even claimed that his buddy Michael Rosenbaum was the best Lex Luthor — but still didn’t cast him. If you read between lines it’s because
Smallville's Lex isn’t
his Lex.
That’s why Henry Cavill, Matt Reeves’ Batman, and even Gal Gadot never really had a chance.
To be fair, it’s understandable, even nessesary , to drop Znyder’s baggage. But it’s a mistake with Reeve’s Batman. No matter how talented you are, you can’t do everything on your own. He
did delegate Wonder Woman — but let’s be real, in today’s climate, Wonder Woman is so politically charged as a feminist icon that he was basically forced to delegate it to a woman.
The ideal would be if he just played ball. But be fair I wouldn’t be surprised if Reeves is the one against doing the cinematic universe deal instead. Or both of them.