For the second time in four years, DC Comics’ turbulent film and TV empire is getting a change in leadership.
Just 33 days after Skydance took control of DC Studios with the Warner Bros. acquisition, creative chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran are being replaced by Jeremy Latcham, one of Kevin Feige’s key lieutenants in establishing the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When announcing the change, Skydance CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz were complimentary of Gunn and Safran’s stewardship. But three people with knowledge of their ouster said the move blindsided the pair, who were informed of their removal less than 24 hours before it was announced. Two additional insiders disputed that claim and said the pair were told on Friday.
But Ellison’s decision to make a change wasn’t a sudden one, as the insider said that the executive had been in quiet talks with Latcham to take over at DC over a month ago, prior to the closing of the Paramount-Warner merger on Oct. 6, when Safran was present at a Skydance press event to mark the merger’s completion. (Gunn was also prominently listed as a part of the executive leadership team.)
This shift means that Latcham, alongside Skydance film chiefs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will now have to forge a new creative direction for DC Studios just 16 months after Gunn and Safran launched their vision for the DC Universe with “Superman,” a series of well-received streaming shows and two theatrical follow-ups that have failed to match the box office success of their summer 2025 predecessor.
It was supposed to be the first chapter of a new saga, a phase called “Gods and Monsters.” Now Skydance has to decide whether to write the next chapter or slam the book shut and start anew. Again.
It’s yet another item on Skydance’s long to-do list as it seeks to fulfill its 30-films-per-year promise with dependable theatrical hits immediately, with the debt-laden company eager to push the most bankable projects possible. Gunn and Safran’s universe would have been advanced with several pricey tentpole films in the next few years following next year’s “Superman” sequel “Man of Tomorrow,” which is already in post-production.
But the fourth insider pointed to a quote from Ellison taken during Skydance’s employee town hall as one that encapsulates the reason behind the DC shakeup: “We are not here to preserve the status quo. We are here to build for what comes next.”
Skydance declined to comment beyond the statements made by studio leadership when the DC CEO change was announced.
Who is Jeremy Latcham?
Latcham was part of the founding core of Marvel Studios under Feige and worked on cornerstone MCU films like “Iron Man,” “The Avengers” and Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man” outings. He also helped shepherd Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Latcham was a key creative executive voice in the first few phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and part of the braintrust that helped hatch the “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” capper.
He left Marvel in 2017 for a production deal at 20th Century Fox, where his first film as an independent producer was the Chris Hemsworth-led “Bad Times at El Royale.” The mystery from writer-director Drew Goddard sank at the box office, grossing just $32 million worldwide, but garnered positive reviews.
Latcham subsequently produced Paramount’s “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” in 2023 and was most recently behind Nate Bargatze’s feature film debut “The Breadwinner” for Sony.
In Latcham, Ellison gets someone intimately familiar with how Feige got the Marvel Cinematic Universe off the ground and has first-hand experience producing massive films — but also someone who is perhaps not as creatively demanding as putting a filmmaker like Gunn in the executive role.
A key change here is that Latcham will report to Skydance film heads Greenstein and Goldberg, whereas Gunn and Safran reported to Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav directly.
Where Gunn and Safran went wrong
If there is one part of Gunn and Safran’s legacy as executives that is sure to endure, it is the structural changes they made to DC shortly after being hired by Zaslav in 2022.
Instead of having DC’s film, television, comics and other ancillary media divisions strung out across Warner Bros.’ corporate landscape, Gunn and Safran brought it all under one roof at DC Studios, allowing the franchise to work as a cohesive unit.
This unification will be invaluable to Goldberg and Greenstein, as DC Studios is just one of nine labels that they will be tasked with getting up to speed with consistent theatrical output alongside Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Clockwork and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, among others.
But there were early signs that Gunn’s approach to universe building, which was still in its fledgling stages, wasn’t working with the moviegoing populace in a pop culture world that has radically changed since the superhero boom of the late 2000s and 2010s.
DC’s Mixed History Under Warner Bros.
While DC Studios began its new universe with Superman, regarded as the heart and soul of DC even as Batman has become its most popular icon, conventional wisdom suggested that the next films to come would be about the other A-list members of the Justice League like Wonder Woman or Green Lantern. The latter did get looped into Gunn and Safran’s TV plans with the well-received HBO series “Lanterns” starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, which averaged 19.3 million viewers amidst strong reviews.
But for the most part, “Gods and Monsters” put the spotlight on lesser-known and sometimes downright obscure characters in the DC canon. This is the approach that got Gunn the job in the first place. At Marvel, he turned the Guardians of the Galaxy from figures unknown to all but the most devout comic book fans into global superstars with a smash hit film trilogy, animation and video game spinoffs and theme park rides as “I Am Groot” became part of the lexicon.
That carried over to Gunn’s pre-DC Studios 2021 film “The Suicide Squad,” which saw Margot Robbie return as Harley Quinn but alongside a team with the likes of Bloodsport, Polka Dot Man, King Shark and Peacemaker, the latter of whom became the film’s breakout star thanks to John Cena’s performance. He even got his own HBO Max series written and partially directed by Gunn.
Gunn and Safran also produced the adult animated series “Creature Commandos,” and their next streaming series that recently finished filming is “The People vs. Gorilla Grodd,” a mockumentary-style faux true-crime series that stars Skyler Gisondo as Superman’s Daily Planet buddy Jimmy Olsen examining the murder charges against one of The Flash’s arch-nemeses, the talking psychic supergorilla Gorilla Grodd.
So far, Gunn’s deep dives into DC comics’ depths have been well-received by fans. But fairly or not, it is the films that dictate the perception of the DC Universe.
While “Superman” was a solid start to the rebooted timeline with a $618 million global total, its summer 2026 follow-up “Supergirl” became a box office bomb in a year full of duds for Warner Bros., with just $126 million grossed worldwide. And there were reports of creative tension between Gunn and his handpicked director Craig Gillespie, with Gunn completely ignoring “Supergirl” in his farewell-to-DC message on Monday.
Gunn and Safran’s exit comes just two weeks after their DC universe’s third “Gods and Monsters” film, “Clayface,” hit theaters. That movie is budgeted like a New Line horror title and is performing like one, with $109 million grossed worldwide through three weekends against a $40 million budget. A respectable showing, but apparently not what Skydance is looking to get out of the franchise.
“James seemed to be focused on the corniness of 1950s DC,” a producer told TheWrap of Gunn and Safran’s approach to the source material. “He had to adjust from the abject failure of the Zack Snyder era, but I don’t think people wanted cornball.”
What happens next?
Insiders told TheWrap that it is not clear yet exactly how DC’s creative direction will change under Latcham. But two broader changes are expected.
The first is that DC Studios will have a far quieter presence on social media compared to Gunn, who was known for being a very vocal online presence and carried that over to his time as co-CEO, debunking fanboy media reports and sometimes sniping back at the more caustic replies left on his X account.
Latcham is more likely to follow the example of his former boss Feige, who has operated for decades as a social media teetotaler, keeping out of the spotlight aside from premieres, his annual showcases at San Diego Comic-Con and the occasional tightly controlled press interviews. Not for nothing: Latcham deleted all of his X posts and locked down his account ahead of the announcement.
What insiders also expect Latcham to do – by mandate of Ellison – is to get the Justice League back on the big screen as soon as possible. No more Polka Dot Men or even modestly known heroes like Supergirl. Latcham will be expected to get films for Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and other heavyweights going in the years ahead.
And of course, he will need to resolve the issue of Batman’s future. Matt Reeves’ “The Batman: Part II” is in production with the assistance of Steven Soderbergh, who stepped in to finish filming in London after Reeves had to return home due to a personal matter. Gunn had said that Reeves’ “Batman” films starring Robert Pattinson would not be part of the same continuity as the rest of the DC Universe, but that universe won’t reach its full potential until its biggest box office draw — Batman — is a part of it.
And there is the question of how much of the storytelling foundations Gunn and Safran laid will be built upon under Latcham.
“Man of Tomorrow” was meant to be the next step in building the DC Universe, introducing more heroes into Gunn’s world: Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart makes his film debut after “Lanterns,” Xolo Maridueña reprises his Blue Beetle role from the disappointing pre-DC Studios 2023 film and Adria Arjona plays a mystery character many expect to be revealed as Wonder Woman.
But as of right now, “Man of Tomorrow” is the only DC film on the release calendar, and no other movies under Gunn and Safran’s purview had been publicly greenlit — although Gunn said Monday he had been tasked with writing an upcoming DC movie that may or may not still happen.
It’s not impossible for a superhero cinematic universe to do a major pivot without a hard reboot. Marvel Studios spent the past few years struggling to maintain audience interest and having to do a lore shift after Jonathan Majors, who was set to play the MCU’s next overarching villain Kang the Conqueror, was fired due to his misdemeanor domestic violence conviction. But now, with Robert Downey Jr. returning to the franchise as Doctor Doom, December’s “Avengers: Doomsday” is looking like it could have a box office run that passes “Avengers: Endgame” as the all-time record holder.
And that’s for a series that is nearly two decades and 39 films into its run. The Gunn DC-Verse, on the other hand, hasn’t even started to connect its three films and three streaming series together into an overarching plot. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Latcham to retain the actors Gunn and Safran cast, most notably Superman star David Corenswet, whose next film is the Paramount inspirational football film “Mr. Irrelevant,” due out this Christmas, which is generating positive early buzz.
Gunn’s opening chapters could then, theoretically, avoid a retcon while Latcham takes it in a different direction led by DC’s most popular heroes. That would also avoid the PR pivot that plagued DC when Gunn and Safran were hired, as they had to dismiss Henry Cavill as Superman and start over from scratch to avoid muddying their new take with the Gordian knot that was the Snyderverse.
Whatever decision Latcham and the Skydance brass make could mean the difference between having a reliable source of tentpole hits that brings stability to the unified Paramount-Warner slate or being stuck with a Krypton-sized headache.
