It has been decades that went into erecting the Arrowverse – Marc Guggenheim’s creative body of adapted work that has brought immense joy to not merely one demography but the entire world, working in tandem to unify the collective and intergenerational love for DC. A major part of the DC fandom in the modern time has been the contribution of the Arrowverse and so, it feels like an insult to injury when not only does the new DC chief, James Gunn, stop at the HQ to put together a new team for the universe reboot but forgets (intentionally) to call the one person who oversaw the entire uprising of the current generation’s obsession with the DC television IPs.
Marc Guggenheim Left Seething in James Gunn’s Wake
David Zaslav, and by extension James Gunn’s first order of business after assuming office was to rearrange the entire DC canon on film, comics, television, gaming, and animation. It wasn’t inherently an easy task but Gunn accomplished it when he submitted his final draft on January 31st. The following week was outrageous. And amid the cacophony of noise and outbursts (more of joy than contempt), a majority of the disappointment got lost in translation.
An invocation of the events that followed in the wake of Batgirl’s shelving occurred (yet again), at least in Guggenheim’s perception when the Arrowverse was left abandoned in favor of a universe reboot. To the co-creator of Arrowverse, the burden of not seeing his brainchild getting a position of permanent recognition in this new world order created by Gunn was not as insulting as the fact that he wasn’t invited to the writers’ room that witnessed and conceived the genesis of the new DC Cinematic Universe.
Marc Guggenheim Addresses James Gunn’s Role at DC
For Marc Guggenheim, the Arrowverse had reached the end of its line. The continuity which followed across projects, numerous and varying in intensity, had served their term. But that is not what is at stake here. It is the decades that went into edifying the adapted oeuvre and not finding himself being steered toward the ark that carries the remnants of the old world into the new era of Gods & Monsters.
“Suffice it to say, I am not among that group. I’m not particularly surprised. In fact, I assumed that they would assemble some kind of brain trust to help facilitate what I assumed — hoped — would be a vision as ambitious as the DC Universe deserves. But I’ll be honest: I would have liked to have gotten at least a meeting.
Not a job, mind you. A meeting. A conversation. A small recognition of what I’d tried to contribute to the grand tapestry that is the DC Universe. I’d only spent nine years toiling in that vineyard, after all.
Although working for DC had been creatively fulfilling, it involved a lot of adversity, challenges, and personal sacrifices — none of which seem to have accrued to any professional benefit. Simply put, the Arrowverse hasn’t led to any other gigs, so it feels — at least on a career level — that I really wasted my time.”
James Gunn’s proposed plans have decimated the entire DC Extended Universe arc, to most people’s chagrin. And yet, it was for the best. The people who had revolted at the new appointment understood what needed to be done to make space for the new (and a better) sustainable DC. As such, Guggenheim’s argument, however strong or sympathetic to his cultured fandom’s ears, does not generate enough sense, especially when it comes to the radically different universe that Gunn looks to create. Even though it would mean that the career that Guggenheim has delivered years of his life to creating now feels like a waste.
Source: Legal Dispatch [via Deadline]
