James Gunn Called Out for SUPERGIRL's "Worst Script" After Promising "Storytelling Is King"

When James Gunn took over DC Studios, he made one thing crystal clear. The new DC Universe wouldn't be built around release dates or rushing projects into production. Instead, fans were promised that every movie would live or die by the strength of its story.

Now that Supergirl has landed with critics, many are pointing to Gunn's own comments and asking an uncomfortable question: What happened to that promise?

Reviews for the film arrived on June 24, and they haven't exactly inspired confidence. The movie currently holds a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with much of the criticism aimed squarely at the screenplay.

Variety didn't pull any punches, describing Supergirl as "super-horrendous." The reviewer went even further, writing that Gunn has "given us a comic-book movie with the worst script I can remember."

He wasn't the only critic who came away disappointed by the film's story. Vulture's Alison Willmore described it as an "aggressively minor movie" that "doesn’t know what to do with" its lead character.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press wrote that the film "struggles to match Kara’s punk-rock energy with an equally spirited supporting cast and story."

Alonso Duralde of The Film Verdict was equally critical, calling Supergirl "a shambolic affair, cursed with underwhelming action and forgettable antagonists."

Those reactions have reignited discussions about comments Gunn made before the DC Universe officially launched.

When fans asked about the delayed The Authority movie last year, Gunn explained why the project hadn't moved forward, saying, "We won’t green light a film until we have a finished script we’re happy with."

He doubled down on that philosophy by adding, "It’s always gonna be quality first no matter what."

Long before that, during a 2023 interview discussing the future of DC Studios, Gunn laid out what would become the foundation of his creative vision…. "Storytelling is 100% king."

It was a statement that excited fans. After years of criticism aimed at the previous DC film slate, many welcomed the idea that scripts would come before release schedules and that quality would outweigh quantity.

That's exactly why Supergirl's reception has sparked so much conversation online. When you publicly make great storytelling and great scripts the cornerstone of your entire franchise, people are naturally going to hold every project to that standard.

That's simply the expectation you've created. If audiences are repeatedly told that movies won't move forward unless the scripts are exceptional, then those scripts better be exceptional.

Whether fans ultimately enjoy Supergirl or not will come down to personal taste. Plenty of moviegoers may connect with the film more than critics have. But it's understandable why Gunn's past comments are now being brought back into the conversation.

He set an incredibly high bar for himself, and when a film receives widespread criticism for its screenplay, people are going to compare the finished product against those promises.

It also doesn't help that Gunn previously praised The Flash in glowing terms, calling it "one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen." That quote has resurfaced alongside his more recent comments as fans debate whether his enthusiasm sometimes gets ahead of the final results.

The screenplay for Supergirl was written by Ana Nogueira, with Craig Gillespie directing. The film stars Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El alongside Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, and Jason Momoa in major roles.

Supergirl arrives in theaters on June 26 as the second theatrical release in Gunn's new DC Universe. It remains to be seen whether audiences embrace the film more warmly than critics have, but one thing is certain. The conversation surrounding Gunn's "storytelling is king" philosophy isn't going away anytime soon.