James Gunn isn’t waiting around to see if Superman works. He’s already writing his next movie.

The DC Studios co-chair casually dropped this little bomb on Threads this week when someone asked if he was ready to start his next project. His response? “Already in it.” Just like that. No fanfare, no big announcement – just a quick confirmation that yeah, he’s juggling multiple films at once while the entire industry watches to see if his Superman reboot can actually save the struggling DC universe.

The Man Who Can’t Stop Working

Here’s the thing about James Gunn – the guy physically cannot sit still. And I mean that as a compliment, mostly. While Superman doesn’t hit theaters until July 9, 2027 (which feels like a lifetime away, but also somehow right around the corner in movie production terms), Gunn’s already got his hands in whatever comes next.

This is pretty classic Gunn behavior, actually. If you’ve followed his career at all, you know he’s the type who’s probably outlining Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4 in his head while he’s brushing his teeth in the morning. The man directed three Guardians movies, a Suicide Squad movie, a Holiday Special, and now he’s rebooting Superman while also running an entire studio with Peter Safran. It’s honestly kind of exhausting just thinking about his schedule.

But there’s something else going on here that’s worth paying attention to. Gunn isn’t just keeping busy – he’s making a statement about confidence. Superman hasn’t screened for test audiences yet (as far as we know), the marketing campaign is still being figured out, and the entire DC slate he’s planning hinges on this movie working. And he’s already moved on mentally to the next thing.

That’s Either Brilliant or Crazy

Maybe both? Look, I’ve seen enough studio executives panic over tracking numbers to know that most people in Gunn’s position would be obsessing over every frame of Superman right now. They’d be in editing bays, messing with the color grading, probably driving everyone insane with notes. Not Gunn. He’s writing.

Which raises the obvious question – what’s he writing? He didn’t say, obviously, because why would he make this easy for us. It could be another DC project. Could be something completely different. The guy’s got a first-look deal that basically lets him do whatever he wants, within reason.

Why This Actually Matters More Than It Seems

On the surface, this is just a workaholic director doing workaholic director things. But dig a little deeper and it’s actually revealing something important about how Gunn operates under pressure.

The DC universe is in a weird spot right now. The old regime’s projects are still trickling out, the new slate hasn’t really been proven yet, and Superman carries basically all the weight of determining whether this whole experiment works. If Superman flops, the entire carefully planned universe Gunn and Safran have been building could collapse before it even really starts. That’s massive pressure. That uncertainty comes right as Marvel's 9-Week Box Office Reign Is Finally Over, shifting at least some of the spotlight onto whether DC can fill the void.

And Gunn’s response is… to just keep making stuff. There’s something admirable about that, honestly. Or maybe it’s just denial. Hard to tell from the outside.

“Already in it.”

The Gunn Method of Not Losing Your Mind

I think what we’re seeing here is actually Gunn’s coping mechanism. When you’ve got the weight of an entire cinematic universe on your shoulders and billions of dollars riding on your Superman movie working, you can either obsess over the thing that’s already shot and basically locked, or you can channel that nervous energy into creating the next thing. Gunn’s clearly chosen option two.

It’s not that different from how he handled the Guardians movies, to be honest. By the time Vol. 3 was in post-production, he was already deep into Superman pre-production. The man processes stress by working more, which is either the healthiest or least healthy thing I’ve heard all week depending on how you look at it.

What’s interesting is that this approach has mostly worked for him. The Guardians trilogy is legitimately one of the best superhero trilogies we’ve gotten (yes, I’m including Vol. 2 in that assessment, fight me). The Suicide Squad was great even though it bombed because Warner Bros. released it during a pandemic on streaming simultaneously. His track record is pretty solid.

What This Actually Means

If I’m being completely honest? This is probably a good sign. Not because Gunn writing another movie tells us anything about Superman’s quality – we won’t know that until we actually see it – but because it shows he’s not second-guessing himself into paralysis. He made the movie he wanted to make, he’s confident enough in it to move forward, and he’s treating this like a career, not a make-or-break moment.

That said, I do wonder if there’s a tiny part of him that’s writing as a distraction. Like, if you’re already working on the next thing, you don’t have to think too hard about whether the current thing might fail. It’s a form of emotional insurance, basically.

Either way, we’ll find out in July 2027 whether Gunn’s confidence was justified or wildly misplaced. Until then, apparently he’s just gonna keep writing. Which honestly seems like the most James Gunn thing possible.