James Gunn has defended The Brave and the Bold screenwriter Christina Hodson amid fan concern following news she will write the DC Universe’s Batman movie.
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Christina Hodson was writing The Brave and the Bold, which will be the first Batman movie in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. Hodson is best known for writing 2018’s Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, 2020 DCEU movie Birds of Prey, and 2023’s ill-fated The Flash. She also wrote the infamous Batgirl movie Warner Bros. canceled after it was ready for release.
The backlash has a number of components to it, one of which is The Flash itself. 2023 superhero movie The Flash, starring Ezra Miller, was a critical and commercial flop, pulling in just $271 million worldwide during its theatrical run. Both it and the entire DCEU are now defunct.
Gunn responded to one person on social media who said Hodson was getting “unjust hatred,” suggesting The Flash fans saw in theaters wasn’t The Flash Hodson outlined in her screenplay.
“I will only say anyone maligning Christina Hodson’s screenwriting skills has almost certainly never read an actual screenplay by Christina Hodson — she’s one of the writers who was with us early in the DCU planning stages,” Gunn said. “I don’t think you can judge my writing based on films others directed, as massive liberties are sometimes taken.”
In October, The Flash director Andy Muschietti defended his box office bomb, insisting people “like to talk s***” about films they haven’t seen. In an interview with The Playlist to promote IT prequel series Welcome To Derry, Muschietti insisted The Flash was a good movie, and some of the criticism it suffered came from people who hadn’t even seen it.
“A lot of people did not see it,” he said. “But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*** about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.”
Muschietti then acknowledged the impact of Ezra Miller’s off-screen controversies on the movie. “Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable,” he said. “And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.”
He continued: “And again, we love the movie. We, you know, we gave it our blood, sweat, and tears all the way to the end. And I watched it, like a week ago, and loved it again.”
In January last year, Muschietti said The Flash failed at the box office because “a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character.”
Muschietti said the film failed to appeal to “the four quadrants” — a movie industry term meaning to appeal to everyone — enough to justify its $200 million budget.
“The Flash failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that,” Muschietti said. “When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.
“I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about the Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned.”
The four quadrants, as defined by Hollywood, are males under 25, males over 25, females under 25, and females over 25.
As for The Brave and the Bold, Hodson may be set to reunite with Muschietti, who THR said remains on board the film but whose involvement is not set in stone given his commitments to Welcome to Derry Season 2. Either way, it sounds like The Brave and the Bold is some way away. THR said “it would be some time before a definitive draft comes in as the studio is taking a measured approach to its development.”
Gunn must navigate next year’s release of The Batman 2 and potentially The Batman 3. The Batman 2, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, is set to launch five-and-a-half years after The Batman, on October 1, 2027. Writer-director Matt Reeves has said he set out to make a trilogy of Batman films as part of his Batman Epic Crime Saga, and as of 2024 that plan was still on. The Batman films exist in a universe separate to the ongoing DCU, and given Gunn has ruled out Pattinson’s Batman crossing over, we’re set for a new actor to play the Caped Crusader for The Brave and the Bold.
Last week, Gunn suggested fans won’t get an update on The Brave and the Bold until after The Batman 2 comes out, so we’re probably looking at 2028 at the earliest for news. “I’m dependent on when there’s an actionable script ready so there is no way of me guessing this,” he said. “Also, frankly, we’re well into Batman 2, and I wouldn’t want to cloud the Batsphere until after that.”
Gunn then committed to never releasing two Batman movies in the same year. “I think both Batman and WW [Wonder Woman] are incredibly important,” he said in response to another fan. “But I’m also not going to have two Batman movies come out in the same year.”
Gunn, meanwhile, is teasing… something potentially related to Martian Manhunter, who fans suspect will turn up in next year’s Man of Tomorrow.
Image credit: HBO Max.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
