The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is interested in making a Marvel and DC crossover, and he even discussed the idea with the creative heads of both companies. Gunn made the reveal during an interview with Jake’s Take, in which the filmmaker also talked about what would be his dream project, should a crossover be possible.
While talking to Jake’s Take, Gunn said we would like to “would be really happy to do a Harley Quinn and Groot movie.” Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is one of the main characters of his upcoming adaptation of DC’s Suicide Squad, while Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) is one of the founding members of Gunn’s version of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. So a crossover between the two would be an exciting project, and after spending so much time with both superteams, Gunn would probably be ready to tackle it.
But would a cinematic crossover between Marvel and DC ever be possible? According to Gunn, the creative leads of Marvel’s and DC’s cinematic universes are as excited as he is to make a crossover happen. In Gunn’s words:
"I've actually talked about that to the heads of both Marvel and DC, but, you know, it's like, they -- you know, everybody's open to everything, but whether anything would ever happen, who knows? But the idea of being able to bring Marvel and DC together in a movie is, that would be really fun for me."
While the Harley Quinn and Groot project was not discussed directly, as Gunn clarified in a tweet, the idea of a Marvel and DC crossover was well-received by both Kevin Feige and Toby Emmerich, the men in charge of overseeing movie adaptation of Marvel and DC, respectively. The biggest obstacle in the way of a crossover would be the legal implication of the movie, as there would be a lot of paperwork to define profit cuts and copyright. As Gunn explains it:
“I know it's exciting for even the heads of Marvel and DC to think about, Kevin Feige over at Marvel and Toby Emmerich over at Warner Bros. You know, it's something we all like to dream about. Whether we could ever get through the barrage, the Berlin Wall of lawyers we would need to get through to ever make something like that happen, I don't know, but it would be a blast."
After the MCU transformed superheroes movies into the most profitable subgenre of Hollywood, every big studio is trying to mine all the comic properties they can get their hands on. To keep the public engaged, Disney even partnered up with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. While a similar deal between Disney and WarnerMedia seems unlikely, it’s not impossible, especially if both companies get to the conclusion a crossover would make them both a lot of money.
While we dream about a Marvel/DC crossover in movies, we still can watch both universes’ upcoming films. For DC, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad will be released in theaters and available for streaming on HBO Max on August 6. The next MCU movie to hit theaters will be Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, set to premiere on September 3.
Check out the full Jake's Take interview with James Gunn below: