If you've spent any time on social media this week, you've seen the posts: "James Gunn is out at DC Studios", "the SnyderVerse is rising from the grave", and "the incoming Paramount bosses are already shopping for his replacement".
The online chatter has been relentless ever since Supergirl stumbled at the box office last month. Most of it doesn't hold up, and the one piece of REAL news this week points somewhere else entirely.
According to Deadline, Paramount Skydance's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the deal that would hand DC's parent company to David Ellison, is in limbo over across the pond, in the UK. Parliament has broken for its summer recess without Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy saying whether she'll formally intervene in the merger, and that silence could leave both companies waiting until at least September 1st, when lawmakers return, for her answer.
Nandy went public at the end of June saying she was "minded to intervene" on media plurality grounds, since the combined company would put Channel 5, TNT Sports, CNN International, HBO Max, and Paramount+ all under one roof.
Waiting could cost a pretty penny: the deal carries a ticking fee, a 25-cents-per-share penalty if everything hasn't been settled by September 30th. In the middle of all of this, the UK is also swapping Prime Ministers. Andy Burnham is set to take over from Keir Starmer on July 20th, and a new government could reshuffle the cabinet, including the very culture secretary whose decision they're waiting on.
Why should superhero fans care about UK parliamentary calendars? Because nobody can fire James Gunn from a company they don't own yet. Ellison's team has no authority at Warner Bros. Discovery until the deal closes, and the UK timeline just pushed that moment out by weeks at a minimum. Every confident "Gunn is done" post you've seen is a prediction about owners who aren't even in the building yet.
Where did all this start? The sturdiest thread comes from The Hollywood Reporter, whose sources believe Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios contracts run out at the end of 2026, or possibly in 2027. Warner Bros. Discovery has never confirmed either date.
If the deals really do lapse this December, DC's new owners would face a renew-or-replace decision within months of taking over, a question mark we covered when that report first landed. It's NOT a report that anyone has been fired, but it IS a legitimate concern hanging over the studio.
The wilder claims trace back to a July 13th post from Cosmic Book News, which says it's already "open season" at DC: Warner film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy taking control once the sale closes, with Zack Snyder, Matt Reeves, Ben Affleck, Christopher McQuarrie, and Patty Jenkins all approached to submit specs and pitches. One of the site's sources describes the mandate as "real stuff, like Dark Knight, the Snyder Verse, and Wonder Woman." Every bit of that comes from unnamed sources, the weakest kind of sourcing there is, and not one trade has picked up on any of it.
One name on that list should give you pause on its own. Matt Reeves is in the middle of shooting The Batman Part II for DC right now, with Robert Pattinson back in the cowl with an October 1st, 2027 release date locked in. The rumor mill can't even agree with itself, as other reports making the rounds this week claim the exact opposite, that Gunn will keep his job under Paramount.
As for the flat claim that Gunn has already been fired? It has NOT happened. No trade has reported it, DC hasn't announced anything, and the outlets that went digging have all come back empty.
Meanwhile, the actual day-to-day at DC Studios looks nothing like a shutdown.
Man of Tomorrow has been rolling at Trilith Studios in Atlanta since April and is past its halfway point. The upcoming film will see David Corenswet's Superman forced to team up with Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor against Brainiac, and it's aiming for a July 9th, 2027 release.
Clayface hits theaters this September. Lanterns is fronting a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con next week. The only reason DC Studios isn't making a bigger Comic-Con splash this year is that Gunn and Reeves are both busy shooting DC movies! That being said, there are always a few surprises during SDCC. It wouldn't be the first time a cast and crew dropped in for a quick "Hello" during a panel in Hall H.
The closest thing to an on-record account cuts against the doom and gloom. Supergirl EP Lars Winther told The Hollywood Reporter last month that Ellison had already visited the Trilith set, and that "he's a big fan, he's been great with us." Winther also said the projects in motion, from Clayface to Lanterns to the Superman sequel, won't be affected by the sale.
The thing causing the most pressure right now is Supergirl. The movie opened to roughly $37 million domestic against tracking that once pointed toward $50 million, then fell off a cliff in its second weekend. Box office tracking can't even agree on the worldwide total… with figures quoted anywhere from just under $90 million to the mid-$110 millions, either end of that range is a serious problem considering a reported $170 million budget and a break-even the trades have put north of $300 million.
Another thing getting recycled as "evidence" is the story that Gunn skipped David Ellison's first big meeting with Warner Bros. staff. While it's true, it happened back in MARCH. Gunn was in Atlanta prepping Man of Tomorrow, Safran attended in his place, and Ellison made the trip to Gunn's set himself in the weeks that followed. The story is four months old, yet it's being passed around this week like it happened yesterday!
While Superman wasn't what I was expecting, it WAS entertaining (especially if you like seeing him get his @$$ handed to him for the entire movie). I know a LOT of people loved it (I was the lone black sheep of the 20ish people I went to see it with). Its critic/user scores are currently sitting at 83%/90%. While grossing almost $620 million at the box office, with a $225 million budget, and $125 million spent on global marketing, there's no denying that it did well critically and financially. Supergirl hasn't fared nearly as well, which is a shame, especially if you like seeing a Kryptonian go ham on bad guys (you can check out my review here, as well as what I thought about all of the negativity surrounding Supergirl here), but it could find some legs on streaming, and DC has a lot coming down the pipe. I know I, for one, am excited for Lanterns and our next installment of Matt Reeves Batman. I think Gunn is in the clear until Man of Tomorrow.
Do you think James Gunn will still be running DC Studios this time next year? If Paramount does decide to clean house once the deal closes, who would you want at the helm of the DCU?
Sound off in the comments below, and keep an eye on CBM for more info as we have it!
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