Gunn and Safran exit DC Studios; Jeremy Latcham takes over

Skydance has removed James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios. The move ends a four-year run in which the pair rebuilt DC's screen universe around a rebooted Superman. Their replacement is Jeremy Latcham, a longtime Marvel producer, who takes over as president and chief creative officer on Dec. 1.

Skydance announced the change Monday, about a month after it closed its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, DC's parent company. Gunn and Safran are not cutting ties with DC. They are still in post-production on "Man of Tomorrow," the Superman sequel Gunn directed, and they will remain producers on DC projects already in motion, including Matt Reeves' "The Batman Part II."

Gunn responded within hours with a long post on social media, and it was franker than most executive farewells. He praised Safran as "the smartest and most competent person I know" and thanked fans. Then he described a job that wore on him.

"What only the closest people to me have known over the past four years is my time at DC Studios has been trying, to say the least."

"I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job," he wrote, crediting Safran with absorbing most of that side of the work. Gunn said he had given up the downtime he used to get between films. He also said the hardest part was splitting his attention among projects he loved, projects he cared about less and the administrative duties of a studio chief. He called himself "incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking."

He also made clear he isn't done with superheroes. Gunn said "Man of Tomorrow" has been the best filmmaking experience of his life and is due out next summer. He added that he and Safran have just been hired for another DC project that he is writing.

Read plainly, the post describes an exit Gunn welcomes rather than resents. That matters for the transition. A departing creative chief who is publicly bitter can make a handoff messy. One who says he is glad to be back behind the camera, and who still has a stake in the next Superman film, has reasons to help it go smoothly.

A shorter leash for DC

The most telling detail in the announcement may be the reporting line, not the new name. Latcham will answer to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, co-chairs of the Skydance Motion Picture Group. Deadline noted that Gunn and Safran reported directly to the company's chief executive. That was David Zaslav at Warner Bros. Discovery, then David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz after the merger. Under the new setup, DC answers to the film co-chairs like Warner's other movie labels.

The titles point the same way. Gunn and Safran were chairmen and CEOs. Latcham is a president and chief creative officer. On paper, DC moves from a semi-independent studio with a direct line to the top to one label inside a larger film group. Whether that brings more discipline or more interference will depend on how much room Goldberg and Greenstein give him.

Latcham's remit is still broad. He will run DC's film, television and animation slate, including the creative pipeline, production, talent and strategy. Goldberg and Greenstein said in a joint statement, "Jeremy brings a deep reverence for DC and its passionate fanbase." They promised that every project would be shaped around the fans. Ellison and Kreiz credited Gunn and Safran with resetting the studio's foundation. They also stressed Latcham's ties to the departing pair, saying, "Jeremy has been a longtime creative partner to both."

For some in Hollywood, the timing was a surprise. Deadline reported that its sources had said the duo planned to stay after Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. The outlet also reported that Safran's contract was set to expire in the spring. It said his name had come up for the top film job at Netflix under Peter Rice, though as far as Deadline knew, the two had not met. The announcement came the same day Skydance released its third-quarter earnings.

Latcham's Marvel pedigree

Latcham spent his formative years at Marvel Studios, rising to senior vice president of production and development. He produced "The Avengers," "Iron Man 2," "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy." As an independent producer, he went on to make "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" and the animated film "The Breadwinner."

Gunn and Safran addressed that history in their own joint statement, saying they had shared a creative history with Latcham going back to Marvel. They also summed up their tenure: "Four years ago, we set out to unite DC under one creative vision." For his part, Latcham called the job of bringing DC's characters to screen "a massive responsibility that I do not take lightly."

The hire also ends an unusual arrangement. Putting a working director in charge of a studio was, as Deadline pointed out, close to unheard of, with Charlie Chaplin among the few precedents. Latcham fits the more familiar model that built the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a producer-executive who manages directors instead of being one. That is a safer profile for a corporate parent. It also gives up the one thing that made the Gunn era distinctive, a single filmmaker's taste setting the tone across film and TV.

Four years of hits and expensive misses

The results under Gunn and Safran were mixed. "Superman," written and directed by Gunn, earned $618.7 million worldwide. "Clayface," an R-rated body-horror film, cost a net $44 million to produce. It opened at No. 1 worldwide two weeks in a row and has grossed $109 million globally. "Supergirl" was the big miss: a net cost of $186 million against $126.4 million in worldwide box office. On television, the pair delivered two Emmy-nominated seasons of "Peacemaker," the adult animated series "Creature Commandos" and "Lanterns," which Deadline described as a viewership success.

Those figures show where the plan held up and where it strained. The flagship worked. A cheap, strange gamble like "Clayface" paid off. The costly spinoff built around a less familiar hero did not. IndieWire's argument that audiences now skip second- and third-tier characters fits the "Supergirl" numbers. It is hard to see any new boss approving another nine-figure film for a lesser-known hero soon.

The pair's broader roadmap, branded "Gods and Monsters" when they unveiled it in January 2023, also lost pieces along the way. Deadline listed several announced projects that stalled after long development. Among them were "Waller," a "Peacemaker" spinoff starring Viola Davis; "Paradise Lost," set in Wonder Woman's world; "Booster Gold"; and "The Authority." Which of the surviving projects Latcham and his bosses keep is now the central question for the universe.

DC has been here before. Before Gunn and Safran, the films were overseen by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, then by Walter Hamada. That era produced hits such as "Wonder Woman" and "Aquaman" alongside expensive flops including "Justice League" and "The Flash." Zaslav recruited Gunn and Safran specifically to end that churn. Now the churn has claimed them, too.

The near-term slate is largely locked. "Man of Tomorrow" arrives next summer as the first major DC release under Latcham, though it was made by his predecessors. "The People v. Gorilla Grodd," an eight-episode HBO Max series starring Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen and Jimmy Tatro as Grodd, has finished filming for a 2027 debut, with Gunn and Safran as executive producers. Deadline noted that Gunn's "Superman" already rebooted the character for the fourth time since 1978. With that history, the boldest thing Latcham could do may be to keep the current version on screen and build on it.