James Gunn Knows Which Actor Is Reading This

Gunn.
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Superman director James Gunn pulled a Deadpool and broke the fourth wall when he called out an actor for reading all his interviews, while doing an interview. “I have an actor who reads everything online,” Gunn told Rolling Stone. “I won’t say who it is, but he’ll read this article, and he’ll know who it is. It’s one of the top five in Superman. And this actor gets so upset over things that people say.” But does he get upset when his director calls him out in public? Hopefully not. Later in the conversation, Gunn provided more details. “He reads every fucking Reddit thread,” he said. “He watches all of the videos, including [ones] by the people who make their livings by hating us. That’s how they make all their money. But you don’t have to watch their videos where they’re talking about how you’re awful. You can’t be reading it all the time. It’ll fucking murder you. It’s a terrible thing to do to your soul.”

Because the internet is nosy, speculation turned to which actor he could be talking about. Gunn confirmed in the interview that he is not talking about his Superman, David Corenswet, because “he’s not a normal person.” The other two leads of the film are Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, who is ineligible because Gunn uses “he/him” pronouns for the actor, and Nicholas Hoult, who is possible, though not likely based on his lack of online presence, as evidenced by his Instagram, which is just movie promo and his own magazine spreads.

On Reddit, the best guess is for Edi Gathegi, who’s playing Mr. Fantastic in the upcoming film and who previously played Darwin in the X-Men universe. Gathegi does seem like he could be a regular Reddit reader and YouTube watcher, since he’s clearly a big fan of comic books. Gathegi told Entertainment Weekly on June 11 that Mr. Fantastic is “one of the most philosophically compelling heroes in DC,” and when he went on the DC Studios Showcase podcast, he referenced comics he’d read. He also paid attention when fans didn’t like Darwin’s early death in the X-Men films, telling EW that “They’re not wrong … There was a lot that they could have done with that character, probably should have done with the character.” Edi, if you’re reading this now, take Gunn’s advice and save your soul — plus, as evidenced by your Instagram, you could beat up all these commenters if you met them in real life.