5 films to watch by director James Gunn apart from Superman

After shaking up both the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, James Gunn is all set to reinvent the Krypton heroes. But if you think that’s all there is to his filmmaking magic, think again.

It’s worth remembering James Gunn's true superpower: making chaos look cool. Give him a B-list character, a talking raccoon, or even a murderous starfish, and he’ll give you a cult classic. His signature? Gore, heart, wit, and total genre anarchy.

While everyone’s applauding for Metropolis and it's big screen makeover, there’s a whole cinematic rabbit hole of Gunn weirdness to tumble down. From alien slugs to morally messy anti-heroes, he’s been serving unhinged brilliance long before the capes came calling. So buckle in, here are five James Gunn movies that prove the man’s brain is a beautiful place.

The Specials

James Gunn’s The Specials from 2000 is the quirky superhero satire that quietly foreshadowed the tone, teamwork, and off‑beat humanity he’d later bring to Hollywood blockbusters. Written and briefly starring Gunn, the film follows the seventh‑ranked superhero team in the world, not battling villains, but navigating betrayal, toy deals, and identity crises in a low‑budget suburban setting .

Despite being directed by Craig Mazin and shot in just 18 days, James Gunn’s trademark voice shines through: emotional deadpan, ensemble comedy, and self‑aware heroics with no action sequences in sight.

Though the film grossed a mere $13,276 and currently hovers at a low 38 Metascore, The Specials earned Gunn early industry respect, and indirectly led to another famed writer watching superheroes differently. The film did not do anything large-scale but showed the day to day lives of the characters.

If you want to trace the roots of Gunn’s genre‑bending style, humour, pathos, and heartfelt misfits, The Specials is a must‑see origin story in miniature.

Slither

James Gunn’s Slither is the kind of gloriously gross, campy chaos that only he could conjure up for his directorial debut. Released in 2006, this sci-fi comedy horror mashup oozes with Gunn’s signature love for B-movie madness, razor-sharp humor, and deeply weird characters. Set in a sleepy South Carolina town, the story kicks off when a parasitic slug from outer space crash-lands and sets off a grotesque body-snatching chain reaction. Chaos, tentacles, and one-liners ensue.

James Gunn wears his influences proudly, drawing heavily from David Cronenberg’s Shivers and The Brood, plus Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. The film also nods to ’80s horror-comedies, something Gunn has openly admitted loving. He even sprinkles in clever homages, like naming the town mayor Jack MacReady, a mash-up of Kurt Russell’s iconic Carpenter characters.

Though it tanked at the box office, Slither became a cult classic, praised by critics and horror fans for its guts. More than just a gross-out flick, Slither was the first sign that James Gunn was going to make weird, wonderful things, and make us care about every goo-covered second.

Super

Super is James Gunn at his most unhinged, unfiltered, and unapologetically weird. Dropping in 2010 as his second superhero film, the film flips the caped crusader fantasy on its head and lights it on fire.

Rainn Wilson stars as Frank Darbo, a painfully average man who snaps after losing his wife to a sleazy drug dealer. In a spiral of heartbreak and divine delusion, Frank reinvents himself as the Crimson Bolt, a homemade vigilante whose catchphrase is “Shut up, crime!” and whose weapon of choice is a literal pipe wrench.

Enter Elliot Page as Libby, a comic book geek with no chill and way too much enthusiasm for violence. Together, they unleash a chaotic storm of justice that feels less heroic and more felonious. Gunn leans into the discomfort, stripping away the glossy Marvel sheen and asking what really happens when regular people try to be heroes.

Bloody, brutally funny, and uncomfortable in all the right ways, Super is a scrappy fever dream that walked so Peacemaker could strut. It’s low-budget, high-intensity, and pure James Gunn: deranged, darkly hilarious, and just a little too real.

The Suicide Squad

The Suicide Squad of 2021 is James Gunn’s gloriously deranged R-rated redemption for DC’s most chaotic crew. After being fired (and later rehired) by Marvel, Gunn crossed enemy lines to deliver a standalone sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad, but with full creative freedom, zero studio meddling, and a whole lot of blood, weirdness, and heart. Drawing inspiration from gritty war films and John Ostrander’s classic comics, Gunn reimagines the Squad as a bunch of expendable misfits on a mission to destroy a secret government project involving a giant alien starfish named Starro.

James Gunn resurrects the Squad with his signature blend of irreverence and sincerity. He turns Bloodsport into a reluctant dad, gives Harley her most unhinged moments yet, and somehow makes you cry over a rat. It’s equal parts grindhouse and Saturday morning cartoon, with gore that splashes, jokes that land, and characters who stick. Even Polka-Dot Man gets a redemption arc.

Though it bombed at the box office due to the pandemic and its HBO Max release, The Suicide Squad was a critical hit and proved Gunn’s magic works just as well outside the MCU.

The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy

James Gunn authored The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy like a mixtape of heartache, hilarity, and heroism in space boots. Across three films, Gunn took a ragtag band of misfits: a traumatised raccoon, a sentient tree, a green assassin, a shirtless warrior, and a pop culture-obsessed space orphan, and turned them into one of Marvel’s most beloved found families.

The first film in 2014 was pure James Gunn magic: irreverent, rebellious, and packed with emotional beats hiding under dance-offs and retro tracks. With Vol. 2 in 2017, Gunn shifted gears, no longer just introducing characters, he peeled back their layers. He themed the film around Peter Quill’s father, adding depth to Gamora, Drax, and even Mantis’s insecurities. The film grossed over $869 million globally and proved Gunn could totally make heart work with high-concept action.

Vol. 3 in 2023 was James Gunn’s swan song to the franchise, and to Rocket. He crafted a finale centered on Rocket’s traumatic origin, calling it the trilogy’s true emotional spine. Opening at $118M domestically and raking in $845 M worldwide, it was both a commercial colossus and critically hailed with 82% Rotten Tomatoes score, widely seen as one of his best works.