James Gunn and Peter Safran lost their jobs at the top of DC Studios after spending heavily on projects that lost money and did not connect with audiences, according to a new report from Variety. Skydance announced on Monday that former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham will take over as President and Chief Creative Officer of DC Studios on December 1, 2026, ending Gunn and Safran's 4-year run as the studio's co-chairmen and CEOs. Check out the official post down below:
Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz reportedly gave Gunn and Safran the news in person last Friday at their offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. The pair had been assured they were part of Ellison's business leadership team after Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closed in October. Skydance had planned to move them under the new Skydance Motion Picture Group chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, a demotion from reporting directly to former Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Latcham will now report to Goldberg and Greenstein.
The Box Office Numbers Behind The Decision
According to sources in the report, the thinking inside the company was that Gunn and Safran spent big and lost too much on projects that were not resonating with audiences. Gunn's Superman, starring David Corenswet, was the duo's first big release as studio heads and grossed $618 million worldwide against a $225 million budget in summer 2025.
Supergirl followed in 2026 and lost money, earning $126 million globally against a $170 million budget. Clayface, the body horror film starring Tom Rhys Harries, opened in October and has earned $109 million against a $44 million budget, but sources say it will not break even until the studio counts downstream revenue.
Insiders also questioned the choice to build around lesser-known characters such as Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El and the Batman villain Clayface instead of marquee names. "The industry has taken away the wrong lessons from Marvel's success," one studio insider said. "Higher budgets don't equal quality storytelling."
How The DC Television Slate Performed
DC's main television success was The Penguin, the Batman spinoff led by Colin Farrell, which was greenlit before Gunn and Safran took over. Peacemaker, starring John Cena, premiered in 2022 before Gunn stepped into the studio job, and its second season arrived 3 years later without matching the attention of the first. Lanterns, the first live-action series of the Gunn and Safran era, starring Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, posted decent viewership but has not been renewed for a second season. "People cannot wait to make another season of a hit show," one source said.
Gunn's Statement And The Projects He Is Keeping
Gunn shared a lengthy statement on Instagram on Monday, thanking fans and calling Safran "the smartest and most competent person I know." He also wrote about the strain of the job:
"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," Gunn wrote. "I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job (thanks to Peter for taking the brunt of that)." He added that "the thing my ADHD hyperfocus has had the most difficulty with has been dividing my time between projects I'm incredibly passionate about and the ones I'm not so much and all the things I have to do as a studio head."
Gunn and Safran will stay involved with DC, though with less authority. Gunn wrote and directed Superman: Man of Tomorrow, which is in post-production and opens in theaters on July 9, 2027, with Corenswet's Superman and Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor reluctantly teaming up against Brainiac, played by Lars Eidinger. The pair are also producing The People v. Gorilla Grodd, a 2027 series with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen and Jimmy Tatro as Gorilla Grodd, plus another season of Creature Commandos. Gunn said in his statement that the two have "just been engaged on another DC project which I'm writing."
Who Runs DC Studios Next
Latcham was part of the founding team of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and worked on Iron Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming. He joined Marvel in 2004 as an assistant to then-president David Maisel, later became Kevin Feige's assistant, and reportedly pushed for Gunn's hiring on Guardians of the Galaxy. At DC, he will lead the film, television and animation slate, overseeing the creative pipeline, production, talent and strategy.
Gunn and Safran were hired in 2022 and took control of DC Studios on November 1, 2022, following the DC Films eras of Geoff Johns and Jon Berg and then Walter Hamada. In their joint statement, the pair said: "Four years ago, we set out to unite DC under one creative vision. In that time, we helped restore Superman to the heart of DC, while opening new doors and telling new stories in film and television with Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, Lanterns and Clayface."
After Man of Tomorrow, the only other DC film in the pipeline is The Batman Part II, starring Robert Pattinson, which is now dated for 2028, 6 years after The Batman. The Wonder Woman reboot never got off the ground, and Latcham will decide whether to continue the plans of the previous leadership. "Jeremy is the kind of guy who would go to Comic-Con to get an autograph from someone," one source said, "not someone who wants to be there signing autographs."
Earlier coverage of the shakeup includes James Gunn's Final DCU Movie Before He Exits As DC Studios Co-CEO Reportedly Revealed and James Gunn Issues Lengthy Statement On DC Exit: "My Time At DC Studios Has Been Trying, To Say The Least".
Should Jeremy Latcham keep building on Gunn and Safran's DCU after Man of Tomorrow, or reset DC Studios around bigger names like Batman and Wonder Woman?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.