The 5 Best James Gunn Movies & TV Shows (And How To Watch Them)

Before James Gunn was a producer or a director, he was a screenwriter, and one of his first big projects was adapting Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! into a movie. The end result was 2002’s Scooby-Doo, a film that not only showed respect for the brand but also injected plenty of James Gunn’s unique eccentricities. It’s still a classic Scooby-Doo story, though, with Mystery Inc. traveling to an island resort to solve what the owner believes to be a demonic curse affecting its guests.

The casting for each of the main characters was on point, with Matthew Lillard, in particular, being the perfect live-action Shaggy. A lot of the fun present in the cartoon managed to make its way into the film despite the shift from animation to live-action, much in the same way Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles successfully transitioned to the big screen. Gunn manages to make the script his own, with plenty of meta jokes here and there, as well as the systematic character assassination of Scrappy-Doo, which is okay because Scrappy-Doo is literally the worst. Whether you’re a young child watching Scooby-Doo for the first time or a parent returning to it, there’s something for everyone to appreciate here.

It’s funny hearing fans trying to pit Zack Snyder and James Gunn’s vision of DC Comics against each other when, in reality, the two of them seem to be on good terms. In fact, they worked together on projects like Snyder’s debut film, Dawn of the Dead, a remake of George Romero’s classic zombie film of the same name, which follows the original's plot of watching a group of people attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse, albeit grounded more firmly in reality than the original film.

While there are some issues with bland characters here and there, Dawn of the Dead excels at action, especially with its visceral opening scene that’s still shocking today. The special effects and makeup are also solid, helping to give the zombies a much bloodier aesthetic that is not dissimilar from the zombie effects in 28 Days Later. It’s also a lot more violent than your average zombie thriller, which would help inspire more gruesome zombie films like Train to Busan. In many ways, it's Snyder’s best film, and it would be fantastic watching Snyder reunite with Gunn to create a movie that mixes Gunn’s skills as a writer with Snyder’s eye for cinematography. 

Gunn’s popularity exploded when he directed 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and while the trilogy of films centering on Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot are all great, the second film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, is the best. 

With the character introductions from the first film out of the way, the sequel focuses on exploring them in more depth and having them develop further as the team visits Star-Lord’s father, Ego. Vol. 2 is all about character drama, giving the film a much greater emotional core than most other Marvel movies. There’s still plenty of humor to be sure, oftentimes feeling like a blend of the profanity-laced Shaun of the Dead and the sci-fi scale of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There’s so much pathos in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that even if you aren’t caught up on your Marvel lore, it’s highly accessible and will almost certainly make you cry by the end.

DC Films quickly picked up Gunn following his forced exit from Marvel in 2018, and almost immediately, he began production on a follow-up to Suicide Squad as his DC debut. While it shares a similar title with David Ayer’s 2016 film, The Suicide Squad is a vastly different beast, stylistically and tonally. 

The film earns its R-rating with a whole host of violence, foul language, brutal violence, and a complete disregard for playing it safe. Gunn leaned heavily on non-traditional characters, like Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and Polka-Dot Man, but personalized and elevated them into fan-favorite characters, lending the film a certain charm that Snyder’s DC films couldn’t achieve. The film feels like a more adult take on Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series with a heaping load of comedy ripped straight out of Deadpool. It was released during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so many people may not have seen it, but it deserves to be on your watchlist.

With Gunn taking creative control of the future of DC Films, now christened DC Studios, following the critical success of The Suicide Squad, Creature Commandos serves as a mission statement of sorts for everything that James Gunn has become. It’s a series that focuses on an oddball and unconventional group of foul-mouthed heroes that are tasked with saving the world, whether they like it or not. 

What helps set Creature Commandos apart from The Suicide Squad and the Guardians of the Galaxy films is the amount of time spent with each character and how dark their stories are. The show runs for seven episodes, and each one tends to focus on a new member of the eponymous group amid their mission to Pokolistan to defeat the sorceress Circe. It’s also far more raucous than any of those films. Leaning heavily into Gunn’s earlier career at Troma Films, Creature Commandos is a pure distillation of everything that James Gunn is as a creative entity. It’s odd, violent, a little bizarre, and great to binge in a single day.