DC Studios shakeup: what Jeremy Latcham means for the DCU

James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as co-CEOs of DC Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham is taking over the division. I can't say it comes as the biggest surprise, but it's not good for the DCU or for superhero cinema as a whole. Gunn's projects have been some of the better superhero cinema of the last two or three years, even compared with Marvel, where he worked before.

The pair were believed to be safe during Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, yet a man The Hollywood Reporter describes as a former Kevin Feige protégé is now running their division.

What The Hollywood Reporter says about Gunn, Safran and Jeremy Latcham

According to the report, Skydance now oversees DC Studios through its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and it has appointed Latcham to lead it. The outlet calls this a major shakeup for Hollywood and the comic book world. It notes that Gunn and Safran released three movies, Superman, Supergirl and Clayface, plus three live action television shows: The Penguin, Peacemaker Season 2 and Lanterns. They also had a decade's worth of plans in the works.

The report adds that Gunn and Safran will stay in the fold creatively, at least on a few projects. Gunn has the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, in postproduction, along with a TV spinoff that is also in post. The pair remain producers on The Batman Part II, which is set for a 2028 release. With their executive days done, The Hollywood Reporter says the plan is for them to return full time to their creative work.

James Gunn's Instagram goodbye: "a dream come true" but "trying"

Gunn posted a goodbye on Instagram that opens with "Oh boy, what a four years." "Having full access to these characters to do whatever we wanted has been a dream come true," he writes. He admits he didn't know if he wanted the job, but "just couldn't pass up the unique opportunity, and I'm glad I took the job." He lists highs including releasing Superman and Clayface, making Peacemaker, and the entire process of Man of Tomorrow, "which thus far has been the best filmmaking experience of my life," and he calls Safran "the smartest and most competent person I know."

"But 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," he writes. "I dislike the at times corporate nature of the job." He says he has stolen downtime from himself and his loved ones, and that his ADHD hyperfocus struggled with splitting time between passion projects, other projects and studio head duties. He says he is "incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure film making," but adds that he and Safran aren't immediately done with DC or superheroes. At the time of posting, Gunn wrote that Man of Tomorrow was "coming out this summer," and that the pair have been engaged for another DC project that he is writing.

Snyderverse fans got their wish: why I was sure Gunn would leave after the Skydance merger

A large contingent of DC fans didn't agree with what Gunn was doing with the characters. Add in the fans campaigning to bring back the Snyderverse, and plenty of people were saying, get rid of Gunn. Given the general tenor of the fandom, who would even want the job? I thought Lanterns was incredible, and people had nothing but complaints. Well, congratulations: Gunn is gone now, and look who you have in return. Latcham is billed as a Kevin Feige protégé, yet despite following Marvel closely, I don't know his work.

I know there were reports that Gunn and Safran would stick around after the merger. But you didn't have to look very deep into who they are as people, and what Skydance is as a company, to see an enormous gap in their ideology. Even in the best circumstances, it was going to be very tough for Gunn to operate in that environment without walking away. For six months I've privately predicted he would leave if the merger closed.

Leaving DC also opens the door for Gunn to make a Guardians 4 or other Marvel films. That doesn't mean he will, but he couldn't have done it while he was at DC.

Will David Corenswet and the DCU cast stay without James Gunn?

Gunn and Safran set up many of these characters, and I have to imagine Skydance will want to keep them. But actors who get opportunities from Gunn and work with him are very loyal to him, and actors don't sign the massive contracts they used to.

I'm not sure how many movies David Corenswet has on his contract. There's a real possibility that many of the actors Gunn brought in might not want to extend past their current deals. After Man of Tomorrow, if the studio doesn't already have Corenswet signed for a future Justice League, it might not get the option.

Skydance couldn't afford to shift gears again this quickly after the Snyderverse failed, and it can't afford a third Superman in the next three years. If it loses this group of actors and the DCU has to reboot a third time, I think it's done. So the best it can hope for is keeping these actors in the fold and building on these stories while it very obviously rushes toward a Justice League.

Warner Bros.' track record and why the DCU mattered

Warner Bros.' track record, even before Skydance, suggests the best case scenario rarely comes to fruition, and given that history, it's hard to imagine they'll pull this off. My real fear is that without Gunn in the creative seat, the actors leave, any reboot is a nonstarter, and the DCU fails completely. I don't know where they go from here.

Whatever you felt about the Snyderverse, and whether or not you loved Gunn's work the way I do, this outcome is bad for the DCU, and to me it was inevitable.

The MCU is too big to fail at this point, and Disney and Marvel have plans for the next five to ten years. Superhero cinema was better off with the DCU as an alternative: two complete cinematic universes with different flavors. DC was greenlighting projects like Clayface and writing shows like Lanterns differently from much of the television we've seen from Marvel Studios on Disney Plus. We are all worse off for losing that.