Another figure involved with James Gunn’s Marvel franchise has jumped ship to DC.
A year after James Gunn was unveiled as the new creative lead for DC Studios, superhero fans are gearing up to see a newly-rebooted take on the DC universe.
The writer and director – best known for his work on the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy – is expected to write and direct the first installment in the franchise, Superman: Legacy (2025). Henry Cavill is out as the Man of Steel, having been replaced by David Corenswet, while Gunn is expected to also cast several of his regular collaborators.
For now, we know that this lineup will include Nathan Fillion – who previously had a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023) – as Guy Gardner, one of the Green Lanterns. Other upcoming DC projects helmed by Gunn will also include his brother, Sean Gunn (who portrays Kraglin and provides the motion-capture for Rocket in the MCU), as the villainous Maxwell Lord.
Several other Guardians of the Galaxy alumni have been rumored to jump ship, including Mantis actress Pom Klementieff (although Gunn denied these rumors in December), Drax actor Dave Bautista (who has repeatedly expressed interest in doing so), and Gamora actress Zoë Saldana.
However, we now have confirmation that another Guardians of the Galaxy alumnus will definitely play a part in the new-and-improved DCU. Gunn revealed that John Murphy – who recently composed the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 soundtrack – will score Superman: Legacy.
“Happy to announce that my frequent collaborator @johnmurphycomposer is scoring #SupermanLegacy,” Gunn said in an Instagram post today (February 2). “John was one of the first people I called when I finished the script many months ago as I knew how incredibly important the score was to this production.”
Gunn went on to add that Murphy has been “working tirelessly since” and created “hours worth of music that [they’ll] play on set as we shoot and use in the edit and that will eventually be recorded with a glorious symphony for all of you. Welcome to the DCU, John!”
The duo have previously collaborated on projects such as Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad (2021). Murphy has detailed their unusual working method, explaining that he scores Gunn’s projects based on the script.
“I love writing from the script,” he told Flickering Myth while promoting Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 in May 2023. “The same thing happened on Suicide Squad, where James outlined a lot of these sequences to shoot with. The scripts that James that I’ve worked on, they’re so visual, you know, you read the script, and, and you can see the movie playing in your head… And the best thing about writing from a script is that you don’t have those constraints of now we’ve cut away to something, or there’s a big rocket coming into view, I’ve got to comment on that, and, you know, you just writing in this perfect world of a story and an idea. So, everything is possible, you know, in a beautiful way.”
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