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 claimed that the Superman director may have had one foot out the door, anyway.
"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)."
In his newsletter, Jeff Sneider said he believes that it was Supergirl, in particular, that “really soured him on the job in general.”
"The job being Studio Boss who has to give notes to another filmmaker (Craig Gillespie), effectively telling him what to do. We all knew this would be a problem. I predicted as much when Gunn took the job — not only would directors resist notes from someone they view as a fellow filmmaker, but as a fellow filmmaker, Gunn may be reluctant to give them."
So, assuming they didn't have much say in the matter, why exactly were Gunn and Safran fired?
Superman was a box office success (maybe not quite as big as it really should have been), the likes of Peacemaker Season 2 and Lanterns were streaming hits, and even Clayface looks set to turn a modest profit. Supergirl was a costly flop, but would would that alone have been enough to lose them the gig?
Sneider believes Ellison's decision had more to do with what the pair had planned than the projects that had already been released.
"I’m told that more than anything, the decision was a reflection on what DC has in development — which isn’t much. Ellison and Skydance’s film chiefs, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, probably got a look under the hood and said to themselves, ‘Oh, no…’"
"I spoke to one veteran comic book editor who said, 'I guess playing in the obscure character toy chest isn’t the best foundation for a universe. I mean, why are we seeing Mr. Terrific and Guy Gardner before Batman? And now they want to make a Bane and Deathstroke movie? That’s an HBO show, at best.'”
If this is accurate, it seems Ellison and his executives may have felt the same about the remainder of the "Gods and Monsters" slate as a lot of fans: why are we putting out a series about some talking gorilla when there's still no sign of Wonder Woman or Batman?
Apparently, Gunn's final DCU project "morphed" from Superman 3 to a Justice League movie, possibly at Ellison's urging!