James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as co-CEOs and chairmen of DC Studios, with Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham installed as president and chief creative officer, Variety reported Monday. The timing is 34 days: Paramount’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closed Oct. 6, and Gunn and Safran had just been named to David Ellison’s leadership team for the merged company (the kind of appointment that usually means someone is staying, not leaving in five weeks).
The box office explains why the goodwill ran out. Superman closed at $618.7 million worldwide against a $225 million budget, a profitable hit that, per THR’s sourcing, did not land with the cultural force Skydance wanted from a movie at that price. Supergirl opened to $37.1 million domestic from 3,600 theaters and finished at $126 million worldwide against a $170 million budget, a flop by any math. Clayface, a $44 million swing, has done $109 million worldwide through its third weekend, which is the kind of return that should be a win and somehow reads as a footnote here.
Television held up better, with an asterisk attached. Lanterns averaged 19 million viewers globally per episode going into its finale and still has no second-season order, and showrunner Chris Mundy put the odds at “a coin flip, 50/50”. Peacemaker’s second run did not match the first.
The org chart is the actual story. Gunn and Safran’s contracts guaranteed a direct reporting line to the CEO after any change of ownership, according to THR, a clause written for Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and carried over to Ellison. Latcham answers instead to Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein and starts Dec. 1. THR’s sources place the actual ending in a Friday, Nov. 6 meeting in Burbank, where Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz told the pair the plan had changed. Whether they jumped or were pushed stays unconfirmed reporting.
Gunn gave his own account on Instagram, calling the job “trying, to say the least” and writing that he disliked “the at-times corporate nature of the job (thanks to Peter for taking the brunt of that.).” His sign-off: “I will miss being the co-caretaker of these great characters, but I’m also incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dfh3WS1mLwK/
What this probably means. Latcham is Marvel to the bone, hired as David Maisel’s assistant in 2004 and promoted into Kevin Feige’s inner circle, with credits on Iron Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming. He left Marvel in 2017 to found Latcham Pictures. What his hiring signals about DC’s creative direction is still an open question, but Goldberg and Greenstein’s own statement leaned on brand stewardship over auteur vision: “Jeremy brings a deep reverence for DC and its passionate fanbase, recognizing that they are the very foundation of this storied, multigenerational brand.”
What is actually locked in: Superman: Man of Tomorrow, written and directed by Gunn, opens July 9, 2027 and is already in post. The Batman Part II brings Robert Pattinson back on Feb. 18, 2028, with Gunn and Safran staying on as producers. The People v. Gorilla Grodd, an eight-episode HBO Max series, has finished shooting for 2027. Everything past that, including Gunn’s claim he is writing another DC movie and the stalled Waller, Booster Gold and Wonder Woman projects, is reporting only.
Latcham’s chair opens Dec. 1. The first release on it was shot by somebody else.
