James Gunn responds to rumors of Ben Affleck directing The Brave and the Bold

Gunn has taken to Twitter again to address rumors, as new ones have surfaced that former Caped Crusader, Ben Affleck, might be helming the announced Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold. This incarnation will be separate from Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson-starring universe of The Batman films. Recently, a fan accused Gunn of lying about Affleck not directing The Brave and the Bold since these rumors have now surfaced.

The fan posted an article about Affleck possibly being the director and snidely asked, “Didn’t Gunn say in a previous interview that Affleck’s not directing Brave and the Bold? I get that Gunn is something of a professional liar, but still.” Gunn replied, “For years it’s been my commitment to the fans that I will never lie to them… and I never have. I’d be very curious about what it is you think I’ve lied about.” The fan would respond with pictures of past tweets where Gunn states that he wouldn’t want to run DC and that he wouldn’t want to direct a Superman movie.

Gunn replied, “Neither of those were lies. I was offered Superman but did Squad instead. A few years later I saw how to tackle Superman & took it on. I didn’t want to be the sole CEO of DC, but when they came & offered it to me AND Peter I said yes because I could focus on the creative side.”

It’s been a bumpy road navigating the criticism Gunn faces as he makes decisions not popular with the dedicated fans of the DCEU. Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to take over and bring a unified vision to DC films. His particular vision included scrapping some fairly newly announced plans for the studio. Last year, Dwayne Johnson had released a long-gestating passion project of his with Black Adam, where he planned to set up a mono-e-mono throwdown with Henry Cavill’s Superman. Johnson had stated that he fought to bring Cavill back to the blue and red for an epic battle of the gods. Once Gunn and Safran were given their new positions, they had decided to start from scratch with Superman in particular with a story from his younger days.

In addition, there would be no further movies in the Black Adam franchise, Wonder Woman 3 was also scrapped, and both Jason Momoa and Zachary Levi had to assure fans that there were no plans for their characters to follow suit.