James Gunn

James Gunn (born 1966) wrote and directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and The Suicide Squad before becoming co-CEO of DC Studios in 2022, where he launched the rebooted DC Universe with 2025’s Superman. Few filmmakers hold as much direct power over how a major studio does — or does not — use AI.

Keeping AI out of the DCU

Gunn has drawn the line repeatedly. In May 2023 he confirmed AI played no part in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, adding that he had never used ChatGPT and hoped AI would be reserved for “benevolent purposes.” When a fan suggested in June 2023 that DC’s animated projects could use AI-generated voices built from licensed sound banks of its live-action actors, his answer was two words: “No way.” And when rumors spread that Superman’s CG dog Krypto was AI-made, he shot back that CG is “not the same thing as AI, so stop calling it that!”

He is equally scornful of the AI slop generated in DC’s name. After a fake AI Superman trailer was mistakenly aired as real on French national television in 2025, Gunn responded with a row of vomit emojis; shown an AI image of a fan-cast Batman that September, he quipped that “it would be weird to cast an AI Batman with a 14 inch arm.”

His most revealing statement came in a June 2025 Rolling Stone interview, where he explained that he wrote Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor as a self-made genius furious at an effortless rival: “Lex looks at Superman like artists look at AI.” The metaphor made the film itself a comment on the debate — sympathy for the artist, embodied in the villain.