Despite James Gunn indicating that he voluntarily stepped away from his position as DC Studios co-CEO in his statement, it seems pretty clear that Skydance's David Ellison was the one who made the call, although a report from The Wall Street Journal indicated that it may only have been a matter of time before the Superman director quit.
"What only the closest people to me have known over the past four years is my time at DC Studios has been trying, to say the least," wrote Gunn. "I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job (thanks to Peter for taking the brunt of that)."
"I’m always a very hard worker, but as a filmmaker I would at least get to take short breaks to unwind, and I’ve stolen even that time from both myself and my loved ones over the past four years (Jenn, I love you and I’m sorry and you don’t need to feel guilty for being the happiest of all people that I’m no longer doing this job)."
Gunn has received a lot of support from others in the industry since the news broke, and former Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav -- who appointed Gunn as DC Studios co-chair -- offered his well-wishes via a comment on Gunn's Instagram post.
“We’re all grateful you took the job, James,” Zaslav wrote. “You’re an extraordinary leader and a great creative, and your storytelling and creative vision for DC was magical. Can’t wait for everyone to see the exceptional Man of Tomorrow … Best time together James.”
While Gunn liked the comment, his fans were not quite so appreciative.
The post was soon flooded with comments accusing Zaslav of being the one responsible for causing the chain of events that led to Gunn's firing by selling WBD to Paramount Skydance.
“EXCUSE ME? This is all your fault for selling Warner Bros. knowing what was gonna happen. Spare us, please,” wrote one of Gunn's followers. Another offered a more blunt, “F–k you. Bro thinks he’s on the team,” while a third remarked, “This is YOUR fault!” “You’re a [buffoon]. In the year that the studio made the most profit, you wanted to sell … go to hell.”
You get the general idea.
Gunn's fans are understandably angry and frustrated, but is it really fair to blame Zaslav for Ellison's decision? For all we know, Zaslav was also under the assumption that Gunn and Safran would remain in their positions following the merger right up until last week.
In related news, Gunn liked a comment on an Insta post, which many are now taking as confirmation that we "will never see Peacemaker again."
The last time we saw John Cena's Christopher Smith, he'd been stranded on the prison planet known as Salvation by Rick Flag Sr. in the closing moments of Peacemaker Season 2.
Gunn clearly had plans to revisit the former villain, along with the rest of the 11th Street Kids, at some point, but it seems highly unlikely that Skydance's new DC Studios boss, Jeremy Latcham, would have any interest in doing anything else with these characters.