Early in the long post that closes his run at DC Studios, James Gunn describes a kid in Manchester, Missouri, who wrote and drew his own comics “with a mix of DC Comics characters and my own characters.” Skydance, which now owns DC after acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, announced on Monday, November 9th, that Gunn and Peter Safran are leaving their posts as co-CEOs of DC Studios after four years. Jeremy Latcham, a Marvel Studios veteran, takes over as president and chief creative officer on December 1st, according to the Los Angeles Times and Reuters. The Hollywood Reporter and IGN put the end of Gunn and Safran’s run on the same date, and Skydance says the pair will return to creative work full time.
Latcham joined Marvel Studios in 2004, according to The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times, and rose to senior vice president of production and development there, with credits that include “Iron Man”, “The Avengers”, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming”. He left in 2017 to start his own company, Latcham Pictures, where he went on to produce “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, Reuters and Deadline both report. He is also producing the live-action “Naruto” film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, according to Deadline and Collider. In his new job he leads DC’s film, television and animation slate and reports to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, the co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group. Warning beyond this point there are details about unreleased DC projects, though no plot spoilers for anything already released.
In his new job he leads DC’s film, television and animation slate and reports to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, the co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group.”
What to call the exit is the first open question, and the coverage does not agree. Polygon, Vulture and Rolling Stone say Gunn and Safran are stepping down. Reuters, Variety and the Los Angeles Times say they are being replaced, Quartz’s headline says Skydance is “ousting” them, and the Jerusalem Post says they were “fired”. The statement from Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz gives no reason for the change, offering instead that they have “complete confidence that James and Peter will ensure a smooth, collaborative transition”. The Hollywood Reporter says the pair were believed to be safe after the takeover and that observers will be looking to see whether they decided to move on or were pushed out. Deadline says its sources had told it they were staying and adds that word had circulated of Safran’s contract expiring in the spring.
Gunn’s own account reads as relief more than grievance. He says his time at DC Studios “has been trying, to say the least” and that he dislikes “the at-times corporate nature of the job”, crediting Safran with taking “the brunt of that”. The hardest part, he writes, was “dividing my time between projects I’m incredibly passionate about” and the rest of what a studio head has to do, and he is “incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.” He calls the work on “Man of Tomorrow” “the best filmmaking experience of my life”, says “I’m glad I took the job”, and adds that he and Safran are not “immediately done with DC or superheroes”, since they are “engaged on another DC project which I’m writing”. He does not say what it is. His closing promise, that “the characters we set up will live on”, reads as a hope more than a guarantee, because the decisions now belong to Latcham.
The work already in motion is what fans can count on, within limits. “Man of Tomorrow”, which Gunn wrote and directed, is dated July 9th, 2027 according to Deadline, Screen Daily and Collider, and is in post-production with Gunn and Safran still attached, a film they describe as “the next chapter of Clark and Lex’s journey”. The HBO Max series “The People v. Gorilla Grodd”, anchored by Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Gorilla Grodd (Jimmy Tatro), is a 2027 title, and Deadline and TV Insider both list Gunn and Safran as executive producers. “The Batman Part II”, starring Robert Pattinson, is set for 2028, with Deadline giving the date as February 18th, and The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times both have the pair staying on as producers. Past those three, Polygon, SlashFilm and Collider all call what happens next unclear.
Television is murkier. TV Insider notes that neither “Lanterns” nor “Peacemaker” has been renewed, and that Safran confirmed in October that HBO had not greenlit another season of “Lanterns”. Deadline looks further back, calling the plan Gunn and Safran announced “Gods and Monsters” and listing “Waller”, “Paradise Lost” and “Booster Gold” among announced projects that fizzled in development. Quartz, summarizing the Wall Street Journal, says one of Latcham’s first tasks will be to choose between discarding that ten-year road map and keeping parts of it. That is a large decision for someone who has not worked in superheroes for close to a decade, according to The A.V. Club, and Deadline makes a similar point. The weight of that choice, more than the exit itself, will probably shape the next few years of the DC Universe.
The reporting line may say more than the titles do. The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline both describe Gunn and Safran as answering directly to the top executive of the parent company, first David Zaslav and then Ellison, while Latcham answers to Goldberg and Greenstein, who run film for Skydance. Deadline adds that DC now reports to them like the other Warner film labels, and Quartz says DC previously stood apart as a self-contained studio. A division built around a filmmaker who wrote and directed the film that opened its movie slate becomes one part of a larger film group. That arguably changes how risks are weighed, how quickly projects get dates and how much of Gunn’s voice survives in what follows. The Hollywood Reporter adds that Ellison visited the “Man of Tomorrow” set before the merger, a visit it says was seen as a vote of confidence, and that Gunn told it last month that “David knows everything” about their larger vision.
Latcham arrives with history on both sides of the desk. Screen Daily and Reuters note that he worked with Gunn on “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and Gunn and Safran themselves cite “a creative history with Jeremy going back to Marvel”. Goldberg and Greenstein say Latcham “brings a deep reverence for DC and its passionate fanbase”, and Latcham calls stewarding the DC characters “a massive responsibility that I do not take lightly.” Those lines are pitched warmly, as such statements are meant to be, and perhaps it is unfair to expect a project list on day one, yet none of them names a single new project.
For viewers working through the DC Universe in order, nothing already released has changed. The films “Superman”, “Supergirl” and “Clayface” and the series “Creature Commandos”, “Peacemaker” and “Lanterns” are all still there, and what moves is who decides what follows “Man of Tomorrow”, a call that becomes Latcham’s on December 1st. The most useful thing to watch over the coming months is which of Gunn’s unfinished projects get a date, because a release schedule will say more about Skydance’s plans than any statement has.
What Do You Think? Is a Marvel-trained producer the right person to steer the DC Universe, or did Gunn’s personal voice matter more than the org chart? Should “Man of Tomorrow” stay the last word on his Superman, and which unfinished DC project do you most want Latcham to protect?
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