At the start of 2023, James Gunn and Peter Safran announced "Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters," an ambitious slate of DCU movies and TV shows meant to usher in a new era of storytelling for the brand. It was an odd lineup, comprising exciting reboots (Superman, The Brave and the Bold), sorely underutilised characters (Booster Gold, Lanterns), and even some real headscratchers (Paradise Lost, Waller).
Nearly three years later, Gunn and Safran have been fired as DC Studios co-CEOs. Where did it all go wrong, and who's to blame? The answer to the second half of the question is simple: Gunn and Safran. The former for his creative decisions and the latter, an experienced producer, for indulging them. Where it went wrong is another matter altogether.
Creature Commandos was a terrific start, and a gloriously unhinged TV-MA animated series that received some well-deserved glowing reviews. It was also an odd choice to set the tone for the DCU, and it didn't have much appeal to non-fans. Still, it was a palate cleanser after an abysmal 2023 for the DCEU, and Superman was the franchise's true fresh start.
The movie, while a little overcrowded, was a delight and delivered a hopeful take on the Man of Steel that was long overdue. Gunn made decisions that riled some fans—Superman's parents receiving the Viltrumite treatment, for example—but the reboot was ultimately 2025's highest-grossing superhero movie, beating three MCU releases. However, depending on who you ask, it barely broke even and may have even lost money.
Still, that can be mostly forgiven; it was, after all, important to reestablish the franchise, and the positive reviews spoke volumes.
Things started becoming concerning when Gunn chose to move forward with Peacemaker Season 2. The first batch of episodes received glowing reviews, but the character and story were part of the DCEU. By bringing Christopher Smith and select actors and characters from that world into the DCU—all of whom he'd cast or previously worked with—the waters were immediately muddied, and it started looking like Gunn might be prioritising himself (and his friends and family) over what was best for the brand.
Still, Peacemaker Season 2, while incredibly self-indulgent at times, was a critical hit. Whether it was a ratings success on HBO Max has never been revealed.
Supergirl followed, and the cracks really started to show. Gunn, who had waxed lyrical about only greenlighting the best possible scripts, allowed a movie into theaters written by someone who openly admitted that they'd fundamentally misunderstood the ending of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The movie was based on that comic, but became a generic revenge story that lacked the powerful message we'd seen on the page. Oh, and Jason Momoa was there cosplaying as Lobo for some reason? The movie bombed critically and commercially, but hey, the DCU could still bounce back, right?
Some might argue that it did so with Lanterns, a positively reviewed series that, according to selective data shared by HBO, was a ratings hit. However, the show, clearly attempting to tap into the race issues that made Watchmen an Emmy-award-winning success, alienated fans by serving as a character assassination for Hal Jordan. He was thrown to the wolves for heavy-handed political messaging that did a disservice to John Stewart, a hero built up because Hal was so viciously torn down.
And then, there's Clayface. There's no denying that the movie has received positive reviews and glowing audience scores. The evidence says that the majority of you reading this loved the movie. Even so, it was a bizarre project to prioritise this early on, and the box office numbers speak to that. Yes, the R-rated body horror will break even, but that's not good enough. To move forward with a project this ambitious, it needed to become an Obsession-level hit. At best, it will turn a small profit thanks to home entertainment sales. That was never going to be enough for Skydance.
The DCU is not dead. Jeremy Latcham will take over and, while there will likely be some big creative pivots, the world started by Gunn and Safran will continue. However, for all intents and purposes, their DCU is dead, and they only have themselves to blame. Gunn, who recently devoted an hour-long podcast to himself, his wife, and a good friend, making his 2021 box office flop part of DCU canon, built this world on a foundation of bad decisions, obscure characters, and zany stories that were, ultimately, aimed at an audience of one: himself.
It was never going to work, and despite having some of the greatest characters in pop culture history at his disposal, Gunn decided that The People vs. Gorilla Grodd and a Deathstroke and Bane team-up were the best use of his time instead of Batman and Wonder Woman. It's not too late to right the ship, and Gunn can still do some good work in the DCU as a writer and director. However, he now serves as ultimate proof of why you don't put a filmmaker in charge of a movie studio.