James Gunn is the man in charge of the creative side of the DC Universe at Warner Bros., and before that, he was the creative mastermind behind the Guardians of the Galaxy for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed his career. After getting his break with Troma Entertainment, Gunn went on to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood, including the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie, and then broke into directing with the horror movie Slither. However, as his career got started, Gunn also did some original comic book movies before he got his break with the MCU.
The most famous of Gunn’s pre-MCU comic book movies was 2010’s Super, which starred Rainn Wilson as a man with no powers who decided to become a masked vigilante. He wrote and directed Super, but it wasn’t his first comic book movie. That first film was actually an independent movie called The Specials, which Gunn wrote and Craig Mazin directed it. Not only did Gunn write the script for this movie, but Mazin cast Gunn to star in the movie as one of its hapless heroes. The Specials was released on September 22, 2000.
The Specials was the first movie that was released with James Gunn’s name on it after he left Troma and started to work his way into Hollywood. Gunn wrote the script, and he credits Jamie Kennedy for helping him get it into the right hands to get the movie made. Gunn handed the script to his brother Sean Gunn, who passed it on to Kennedy. Sean started his supporting role on Gilmore Girls the same year that The Specials came out. Kennedy showed it to his manager, Peter Safran, and Safran then signed James Gunn as a client as well. This is the same Peter Safran who is now co-running the DCU with Gunn. Their relationship started with The Specials.
The Specials is a strange little superhero movie because it is more about what it is like to be superheroes than about heroes fighting villains. The Specials are the world’s seventh-most popular superhero team, so they have never achieved popularity or prestige, and they are not corporate-friendly enough to get a merchandising deal. After they invite a new teenager to join the team, the team’s leader reveals they finally got a merchandising deal with a toy company. That deal falls apart when it isn’t what he expected, and the team’s leader learns his wife, another hero on the team, has been cheating on him.
This is not a drama, and, as expected from James Gunn, it is a broad comedy with some issues that the team has to deal with. Craig Mazin was hired to direct the movie as his directorial debut, and after working on a series of comedies and spoofs over the years as a writer, Mazin finally achieved success when he created Chernobyl in 2019 and The Last of Us in 2023. However, at this time, both Mazin and Gunn were unknowns, and this was a big opportunity for both of the filmmakers.
What really helped this movie shine was the cast. Despite the relative unknowns in the director and writer, the cast of the film ended up with some impressive names, at least when looking back on the movie. The team leader, The Strobe, was played by Thomas Haden Church, who, a few years later, went on to appear as Sandman in Spider-Man 3, with Sam Raimi as the director. Paget Brewster starred as his wife, Ms. Indestructible. This was six years before she began her tenure on Criminal Minds as Emily Prentiss.
James Gunn himself starred as the shrinking team member Minute Man, while Sean Gunn took on the role of the shape-shifting Alien Orphan. Rob Lowe stars as The Weevil, the most popular member of the Specials, and the hero who was cheating with Ms. Indestructible. Judy Greer starred as Deadly Girl, Jordan Ladd played Nightbird, Jamie Kennedy starred as Amok, while Jenna Fischer, Melissa Joan Hart, and Michael Weatherly all had minor roles.
This was a stacked cast, even if many of the stars were still a few years away from their touch with greatness. Among them was James Gunn, who not only got his big break as a Hollywood screenwriter, but also a chance to appear in a movie in an acting role. It was only two years later that he got his biggest break when he co-wrote Scooby-Doo, and then two more years after that when he wrote Dawn of the Dead for Zack Snyder to direct. By 2014, Gunn was in the MCU, and he hasn’t slowed down since.
