Arrowverse co-creator Marc Guggenheim laments James Gunn’s apathy toward The CW's superhero shows

When James Gunn announced the ambitious slate of projects that he and fellow DC Studios co-head Peter Safran were developing for their new era of comic book movies, the The Suicide Squad director noted that previous run of DC Comics adaptations were all disjointed and confusing—and he specifically referenced The CW’s Arrowverse as an example of this alongside “the Joss Whedon Justice League” and the Snyderverse as distinct things. (Though it’s worth noting, once again, that it is Arrowverse/Snyderverse canon that the movie version of the Flash came up with that name after meeting The CW version of the Flash.)

If that seems like an overly casual dismissal of everything that the Arrowverse accomplished from the premiere of Arrow to the upcoming end of The Flash 10 years later, then it definitely seems even more like that after reading what Arrowverrse producer Marc Guggenheim has to say about James Gunn (via Entertainment Weekly). As part of his email newsletter, Gugenheim says that a friend once told him that his phone would be “ringing off the hook” after he and the rest of the Arrowverse team successfully pulled off their massive Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover (an adaptation of the iconic comic book event that brought together nearly every DC TV show ever and a handful of DC movies as well), but, in reality, that hasn’t happened.

“I spent every ounce of capital I’d amassed in developing DC Comics-related shows for Warner Bros. over an eight-year period.” Guggenheim says, “I called in every favor. I used every chit. I burned every bridge. I even spent $10,000 of my own money,” but he adds that “the Arrowverse hasn’t led to any other gigs.” So, “at least on a career level,” he worries that he just wasted his time on it.

What brought all of this on, apparently, was James Gunn’s announcements about the future of DC Studios and that he had assembled a writers room to sketch out what that will look like. Guggenheim says he’s “not particularly surprised” that he wasn’t invited to be a part of that, but he does add that he would’ve appreciated getting a call at least. “Not a job, mind you. A meeting. A conversation. A small recognition of what I’d tried to contribute to the grand tapestry that is the DC Universe. I’d only spent nine years toiling in that vineyard, after all.”

Guggenheim chalks it all up to the way writers are treated in general, noting that it’s “grown all too commonplace recently that the loyalty writers devote to studios is not returned in kind. And those are the good situations.”