Right away, Gunn was diplomatic, saying that Marvel and DC shouldn’t be seen as rivals. Sure, Marvel and DC have vied for control over the comic book market for years, and fans frequently enjoy spirited debates as to the merits and demerits of each, but the MCU and the DCU, Gunn feels, complement rather than conflict with each other. He said:
“To be frank, I think the better Marvel movies do, it’s better for DC, and the better DC movies do, it’s better for Marvel. […] When people see bad movies, they don’t want to spend more money on seeing more movies. So you want good movies to happen.”
He did, however, lightly criticize the use of a universe-wide cataclysm as seen in “Infinity War.” Once you erase half the universe, how do you write new stories that can top it? A halved population would be bedlam. Gunn feels that erasing half of the universe would be far too dramatic to recover from, and all the stories moving forward would be about how the entire universe was driven insane by the drama. The filmmaker said:
“There’s this worldwide, universe-wide event that happened. And in truth, everybody would be stark raving mad at this point. […] So it’s hard to write stories in the wake of that. Which is why the ‘Guardians’ movies have been easier, because they’re set outside of that a little bit.”
Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” films take place in deep space with alien/android/mutant characters who don’t interact with other Marvel heroes very often. Their physical distance from other movies allowed him to remain in something of a bubble.