Director James Gunn responds to director Steven Soderbergh's belief that "nobody's f*cking" in superhero movies. Soderbergh is the director of the Oceans Eleven trilogy, as well as acclaimed movies such as Out of Sight, Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike, and Logan Lucky, who began his career with Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989. Gunn is the famed director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, as well as The Suicide Squad and its spinoff show, Peacemaker, currently playing on HBO Max.
Soderbergh stated recently in an interview with The Daily Beast that the reason he doesn't direct big-budget superhero movies is that "apart from the fact that I can bend time and defy gravity and shoot beams out of my fingers—there’s no f*cking." Soderbergh goes on to say that he's "too earthbound" in his storytelling to embrace the superhero genre, claiming he's "not a snob" about it and doesn't consider the genre "lower tier in any way." For many, the problem with his statement is that it doesn't take into account the long list of superhero movies and TV shows, going all the way back to Superman II, that defy his theory.
Now, Gunn is calling out Soderbergh's theory as well, showing off just a few examples from his own films to disprove it, including shots from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Suicide Squad, and Peacemaker. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is more of a post-coital scene involving Yondu, both The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker have actual sex scenes, one involving Harley Quinn and a South American dictator, the other with Peacemaker, Vigilante, and a random woman - not to mention an earlier scene that involved Peacemaker and a woman who turned out to be a villainous "butterfly." Gunn hasn't shied away from sex scenes in his work traditionally, with his earlier superhero film, the aptly titled Super starring Rainn Wilson, featuring a fairly explicit one. Check out Gunn's response tweet below:
Gunn goes on to mention other filmmakers that have made superhero films and portrayed sex or sexual themes that simply defy the claims that none of these characters are having it. The director mentions Zack Snyder, who had sex scenes in his 2009 adaptation of Watchmen, as well as a very suggestive scene in a bathtub between Lois and Clark in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Richard Donner's Superman II also featured the pair in post-coital bliss, making the entire movie essentially about Superman becoming human in order to "be" with Lois. Gunn also mentions Chloé Zhao, who included the first sex scene ever in an MCU feature film with Eternals, as well as Tim Miller, who directed the first Deadpool, which had a year's worth of sex scenes between Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin in one particular montage sequence.
Gunn is right to point out these discrepancies, even though Soderbergh isn't completely off base. Traditionally, superhero comics avoid sex, at least directly, as they're made mostly for younger or "all ages" readers. The big-budget spectacle superhero films have followed suit, sticking mostly with PG-13 ratings, which accommodate the scarier themes, violence, and light blood and gore. Simply put, it's not that characters aren't having sex, they're just not shown doing it - though Gunn, Snyder, and many others are pushing the boundaries and showing their characters in intimate situations that buck the trend of keeping it behind closed doors. With the genre continuing to expand, it's likely that sex will sneak its way into more and more superhero films and shows, while skirting the edge for the big-budget fare.
Source: James Gunn
