James Gunn slams 'cameo porn' in recent superhero movies

James Gunn has slammed the "cameo porn" culture that is prominent in superhero movies these days.

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Universe progressed, so did the respective studios' desire to shoe-horn in appearances by other comic book characters either to tease a future movie or for a cheap pop from the audience.

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To use The Flash as an example, the Ezra Miller-led superhero movie was crammed full of cameos including Nicolas Cage as his version of Superman from the unmade Superman Lives, Christoper Reeve as Superman, Adam West as Batman, George Reeves as Superman, Burt Ward as Robin, Cesar Romero as Joker and even George Clooney as Batman.

Gunn, who now runs the creative side of DC Studios, believes cameos need to have a purpose.

"I call that 'Cameo Porn' and it has been one of the worst elements of recent superhero movies," the Superman: Legacy director wrote on Threads.

"If a character is in film, they have to have a reason to be there story-wise

“I don’t mind actual cameos – if it’s a glimpse or a moment, an Easter egg. What bothers me is when they mangle an elegant story by shoehorning characters in – they aren’t there because the story calls for it but for some other reason."

Gunn hates 'lazy' superhero movies

The Superhero movie boom started in the early 2000s with the release of X-Men and Spider-Man, but it wasn't until the MCU found its feet that we started to get dozens of comic book adaptations, whether in television or in movies, each year.

When you combine that with DC Comics' attempts to create their own, similar, universe, then audiences have been bombarded with superhero films in recent years.

Gunn believes these stories are being adapted into movies for the sake of it with no real care shown for the characters.

“People have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories,” the Guardians of the Galaxy director said on the Inside of You podcast.

“And they have gotten to the place where, ‘Oh, it’s a superhero, let’s make a movie about it.’ And then, ‘Oh, let’s make a sequel, because the first one did pretty well,’ and they aren’t thinking about, ‘Why is this story special? What makes this story stand apart from other stories? What is the story at the heart of it all? Why is this character important? What makes this story different that it fills a need for people in theatres to go see?’

“People have gotten a little lazy and there’s a lot of biff, pow, bam stuff happening in movies and I’m watching third acts of superhero films where I really just don’t feel like there’s a rhyme or reason to what’s happening… I don’t care about the characters. And they’ve gotten too generic.

“I like very serious superhero movies, and I like very comedic superhero movies,  like ones that are a murder mystery but it’s with superheroes. I like to see these different types of stories, as opposed to seeing the same story told over and over again.”