Once again, the fate of the DC Universe is being threatened.
But it isn’t Darkseid or Lex Luthor who could wipe out a roster of beloved comic book characters and reset years of existing lore. No. Once again, it’s studio politics and corporate intrigue that could do more damage than any unholy villain ever could.
With the dismissal of James Gunn and Peter Safran, former co-heads of DC Studios, fans are wondering if it even matters anymore to try to keep up with this stuff. Another regime change means another lame duck run of movies that were greenlit by the previous era and awkwardly released by the new boss.
Chief among them is “Man of Tomorrow,” the sequel to Gunn’s 2025 film “Superman,” which is currently in post-production and scheduled for release next summer. By the time the film — which was written and directed by Gunn — opens, the division will be overseen by Jeremy Latcham, a squeaky-clean former Marvel Studios producer, who will be serving as president and chief creative officer. He’s probably already wondering what the heck he’ll do with it.
The change in leadership comes just four years after Gunn and Safran were installed and after Skydance had already committed to continuing its relationship with the duo. Gunn and Safran had a bold, ambitious plan for their DC Universe that would encompass movies, television series, animation and video games, with interlocking stories and recurring characters, all played by the same actors. They would also have one-off movies, which they dubbed “Elseworlds,” that didn’t have to color within the established lines – things like the upcoming animated feature “Dynamic Duo” and Matt Reeves’ “Batman” movies. The low-budgeted horror film “Clayface,” centered on an iconic villain from Batman’s rogues’ gallery, also falls into these parameters.
But insiders told TheWrap that Latcham has a mandate from Skydance CEO David Ellison to get Justice League headliners like Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman back on the big screen. And quick.
The about face has DC — once again — in a state of limbo and raises the question of whether fans will stick around for a franchise long plagued by false starts and enough loose threads to line Superman’s cape. Gunn and Safran’s former roadmap, dubbed “Gods and Monsters,” which emphasized more esoteric heroes like Swamp Thing, is almost certainly out. But with all of these corporate-mandated restarts burning fans time and time again, is any patience left for a new new DC? Can Skydance convince them to return for yet another revamp?
“The MCU had the chance to simmer and grow the fanbase, but it feels like WB/Skydance keeps resetting things every few years and it turns the fans off. Why get invested when it is all going to get restarted next year anyway?” Trevor Debus, a DC fan and San Bernardino-based lawyer, told TheWrap. “They’re chasing the Marvel returns without giving their properties the same chance to establish a fan base.”
And even if they give new filmmakers the room to establish characters and grow the fan base, will anybody even trust the leadership Skydance has installed to execute the plan? It’s a significant hurdle that the company will need to clear, especially with a 30-film-a-year mandate to hit and $80 billion in debt to bring down.
Skydance declined to comment for this story.
A crown jewel
DC Studios is one of the biggest and most valuable brands that Skydance acquired with the Warner Bros. deal. With an emphasis on dependable theatrical hits that will pay off for the company downstream and for years to come, the pressure will be on to deliver big hits that satisfy huge audiences. DC’s franchise, if successful, could check a lot of those boxes.
During Monday’s earnings conference call, Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz pledged to double down on what they described as “our commitment to fans.” What exactly that “commitment to fans” means remains unclear as Latcham starts in December. Should DC go the hard reboot route yet again, fans generally dislike being told that the mythology that they’ve invested in means nothing. It’s only been three years since the previous attempt at building an interconnected stable of superhero fare, spearheaded by Zack Snyder, unceremoniously fizzled out, like a popped word balloon.
The now Skydance-overseen DC Studios’ first major test is “Man of Tomorrow,” due next summer, which is also rumored to introduce Gunn and Safran’s new Wonder Woman played by Adria Arjona and features Green Lantern Aaron Pierre and “Supergirl” star Milly Alcock. Will fans and casual moviegoers show up to “Man of Tomorrow” knowing that this isn’t the beginning of a new world (filled, as Gunn and Safran suggested, by gods and monsters) but the dying gasp of the last one?
Consider the box office of “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (both released in 2023). The former was a spinoff of the extremely tortured “Justice League” movie, meant to highlight Ezra Miller’s speed-freak, but was beset by bad press stemming from the behavior of its leading man and general apathy towards the flagging DC Extended Universe (as it was then known). Even with a buzzy CinemaCon screening and Gunn declaring it one of the best comic book movies ever made, it floundered, making $271 million globally on a budget of more than $200 million.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” was met with even more of a whimper. The sequel to 2018’s $1.15 billion-grossing smash, “Aquaman 2″ encountered nothing but apathy. Its premiere happened two days before release at an outdoor mall in Los Angeles called The Grove. It made $440 million worldwide, which is less impressive considering its $215 million price tag.
These two films were the last vestiges of a previous regime, met with indifference and outright ridicule. Is “Man of Tomorrow,” made by the guys that Skydance didn’t trust to continue shepherding the franchise into the future, expected to do much better? Or will public perception of their shortcomings not factor in at all?
The solution: A. Keep DC fans engaged and B. Get new films moving ASAP. Skydance could do this by retaining the majority of the actors Gunn and Safran cast in their DC roles and just reorient the upcoming slate of solo features — fast-track Wonder Woman, Batman and Flash and put more “Clayface”-style one-offs on ice.
That decision will come down to Latcham, a man of faith who moved to Texas after leaving Marvel Studios. Is he the one to restore hope to the Comic-Con crowd?
Latcham, who will be in charge of the fifth DC regime since 2013, doesn’t have the social media savvy or the nerd credentials that Gunn does, and it’s unclear who he would hire or appoint who could win over fans. It will take more than “restoring the Snyder Cut” to get the diehards on his side.
DC’s mixed history
The fans speak
According to several fans TheWrap spoke with, Gunn’s DCU was beginning to work. “Superman” grossed $618 million worldwide and garnered strong reviews (Skydance felt it could have done better), and HBO’s “Lanterns” averaged roughly 19.3 million viewers, with a decision about a second season due at the top of the year, according to an insider.
“As much as people want to question Gunn’s choices, the reception to ‘Superman,’ ‘Clayface’ and ‘Lanterns’ was clearly more positive than the Snyder era,” Shawn Madden, a DC fan from Orange County, told TheWrap. “People were starting to reinvest again and now we’re possibly going back to square one.”
For other fans, the biggest fear is losing the cast that has already been assembled, not the executives. Madden added Skydance’s best move would be promising there won’t be another reboot after audiences connected with David Corenswet’s Superman and especially Pierre, who broke out as Green Lantern John Stewart in HBO’s “Lanterns.”
“What people who just see IP forget is that it’s not just about the character,” he said. “There’s a reason people cried at the end of ‘Logan.’ At the end of ‘Endgame.’ There’s a human connection made to the characters and those playing them.”
“The DCU cannot survive another reboot this early in an established universe that people have been loving so far,” said Liam Saul, a Canadian content creator. After surviving the Snyder era, he said, “it feels like a humiliation ritual to be a fan of these movies now.”
Not every DC fan loved Gunn’s projects or its decision about the DCU (ask any Snyderverse diehard), but the general reaction to the news of their firing was that the DCU didn’t really have the time to show if it could be a successful universe.
Some fans are also worried about R-rated projects Gunn and Safran had in development, including “Swamp Thing” and a “Constantine” sequel. Saul said fans fear Skydance and Latcham “are going to cancel every R-rated project in development.”
Fans also told TheWrap they no longer trust Skydance leadership, especially after Safran was paraded at Skydance’s press event earlier in October (while Ellison and Kreiz were quietly negotiating with Latcham), and Gunn was listed among the company’s executive leadership. Skydance sandbagged both just a few weeks later.
“It’s harder to want to invest when the executives are clearly the ones consistently pulling the rug out,” Madden said. “Can they restore the faith? Maybe. But when they assure people these two are staying on and then pull a ‘Psych!’ shortly after, it hurts those chances.”
One thing’s for sure: That “Man of Tomorrow” press tour, with the fired co-CEO known for being blunt in interviews promoting his latest project as a writer and director, should be as entertaining as any superhero spectacle.
