James Gunn Nearly Directed a DC Blockbuster 20 Years Ago: Here's What Stopped It
Two decades before steering DC Studios, James Gunn nearly brought a fan-favorite hero to theaters at Warner Bros.—and he just revealed which one on Threads.
James Gunn almost made a Plastic Man movie back when flip phones were still a thing. No, really. Before he was running DC Studios, he and Matthew Lillard took a swing at bringing the bendy goofball to the big screen. It didn’t happen, but the backstory is a fun bit of DC movie what-could-have-been.
The Plastic Man that almost was
Gunn answered a fan on Threads who asked if he was gonna do a Plastic Man movie in the early 2000s at Warner Bros. with Matthew Lillard. Gunn said the rumor is partly true: he and Lillard pitched the idea to then–Warner Bros. exec Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and di Bonaventura was into it. That’s some real inside baseball — di Bonaventura later became the Transformers guy at Paramount, but before that he ran worldwide production at WB until he left in 2002 to start his own shop.
Plastic Man has been a white whale for years. The Wachowskis even wrote a script in the mid-90s that never got off the launch pad. So Gunn and Lillard’s pitch is just one more in a long line of almosts for DC’s stretchiest hero.
The rumor mill vs. reality
Fast-forward to February 2024: a Threads rumor claimed there’d be an open casting call for Ruthye in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, plus new movies based on Teen Titans, Sgt. Rock, and Plastic Man — with Darren Aronofsky supposedly directing Plastic Man. Gunn didn’t name names, but he did toss this into the chat:
'AT LEAST one of those things is not true. Have fun guessing!'
Since then, DC Studios has cast Ruthye and actually confirmed Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock movies. Plastic Man? Still unannounced. Maybe the Aronofsky part was the bogus bit. Or maybe Plastic Man isn’t happening anytime soon. Until DC says something official, it’s just educated guessing.
Worth noting
A couple of actors have publicly shot their shot for Plastic Man — Ben Schwartz and Rainn Wilson among them — but interest isn’t the same as a greenlight. And even with Gunn now co-CEO of DC Studios, there’s no sign the character is at the front of the line.
Quick timeline
- Mid-1990s: The Wachowskis write a Plastic Man screenplay. It goes nowhere.
- Early 2000s: James Gunn and Matthew Lillard pitch Plastic Man to WB’s Lorenzo di Bonaventura. He likes it, but the movie doesn’t happen.
- February 2024: A rumor claims an open casting call for Ruthye in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and movies in development for Teen Titans, Sgt. Rock, and Plastic Man, with Darren Aronofsky attached to Plastic Man. Gunn replies that at least one part of that is false.
- Since then: DC casts Ruthye and confirms Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock movies. No official Plastic Man announcement yet.
Bottom line: Gunn really did try to get Plastic Man off the ground with Lillard back in the day. It just didn’t stick — and despite the occasional rumor (and some enthusiastic would-be Plastics), it still hasn’t.