James Gunn‘s DC Universe is two films old, and one of them has a problem. Supergirl has arrived with a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes from nearly 150 critics — well below Superman‘s 83%, well below where a franchise-building tentpole needs to land, and arriving with box office projections that are shaping up to be equally disappointing. The film may struggle to reach $300 million globally, roughly half of what Superman achieved.
To put the number in context — the MCU, across more than three dozen films, has produced exactly three rotten-scored movies. The DCEU that Gunn’s new universe replaced had nearly half its films land below 60%. The entire premise of the reboot was that the DCU would do better. Two films in, it is one for two.
The Right Question — and the Wrong One
The concern circulating is whether Gunn should be trusted to run a cinematic universe. But that is the wrong question. Gunn’s own track record as a director and writer is essentially impeccable. His resume across eight projects — three Guardians of the Galaxy films, The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, the Guardians Holiday Special, and Superman — sits between 82% and 95%, with audience scores matching or exceeding critics at nearly every turn.
Supergirl is the first DCU project Gunn neither directed nor wrote. Craig Gillespie directed it; Ana Nogueira wrote the script. That distinction matters enormously, because the pattern is now visible: everything Gunn has personally made is very good. The first thing he supervised from a distance is not.
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The right question, then, is whether Gunn is making the right calls on projects he is not directly creating. And here the concern becomes more specific. Gunn has publicly stated he will only greenlight a project when the script is “rock solid.” Many critics feel Supergirl‘s screenplay falls considerably short of that standard. More consequentially, Nogueira is now reportedly writing both the DCU’s Teen Titans and the considerably higher-stakes Wonder Woman — giving the same writer two more major franchise entries after a mixed debut.
There is also a pattern worth noting. In 2023, Gunn publicly praised The Flash as one of the greatest movies ever made. That film landed at 63%, generated a wave of memes, and lost more money at the box office than almost any other superhero film in history. Gunn then hired that film’s director, Andy Muschietti, to helm Batman: The Brave and the Bold. The track record of Gunn’s external judgement — distinct from his personal creative work — is not reassuring.
Why It Is Still Too Early
Despite all of that, two films is not enough data to render a verdict on a cinematic universe. The DCU’s near-term tests are varied and illuminating — the HBO Max Lanterns series will reveal whether prestige television is a Gunn strength, and the horror film Clayface this fall, while never likely to be a blockbuster, will test genre range. The film that follows those, Man of Tomorrow, is Gunn’s own Superman sequel — his writing and direction — and will not test his supervision abilities at all.
The real stress test of what Gunn can build from the outside arrives in 2028 and beyond. For now, one miss in two is not a crisis. But it is a flag. And how Warner Bros. interprets that flag — especially amid ongoing speculation about a Paramount merger that could bring new ownership priorities — may matter as much as anything that happens on screen.
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