James Gunn leaves DC Studios: did Skydance push him out?

James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as co-CEOs of DC Studios effective December 1st, and Skydance is replacing them with Jeremy Latcham, a Marvel Studios executive from the early years through 2017. I don't know if a culture war is actually what's going on here. The reality probably had more to do with reduced autonomy and an awkward new reporting structure that Gunn and Safran bristled against after the Skydance merger.

The announcement surprised the nerd world. The press release went out to news outlets on the morning of Monday, November 9th, with prepared statements from Skydance CEO and chairman David Ellison and from Gunn himself. Everyone sounded magnanimous and professional. Yet only weeks earlier, Gunn appeared on a DC Studios podcast talking about his future plans for the DCU and the casting of his version of Batman.

James Gunn and Peter Safran keep Man of Tomorrow and The Batman Part II

Statements to the press and Gunn's own social media post lay out what stays in place. Gunn and Safran will still release the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow on July 9th, 2027. In that film, David Corenswet's Superman teams up with Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor against Brainiac, and Aaron Pierre's John Stewart Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Milly Alcock's Supergirl are all expected to appear. Gunn has begun writing at least one more DC screenplay, which he said will come out at some point after that.

Gunn and Safran also remain attached as producers on The Batman Part II, starring Robert Pattinson, coming February 2028. That film was delayed by a few months, and director Matt Reeves had to step back for personal reasons, but Steven Soderbergh stepped in to help finish it, and it's expected to release on time. The pair will still be in the creative mix at DC Studios under Skydance, but they're free to work on other projects, potentially including Gunn returning to Marvel Studios for more Guardians of the Galaxy related work.

In his statement, Gunn shouted out the highs of his four year tenure: Superman, Clayface, Peacemaker and Man of Tomorrow, which he called the best filmmaking experience of his life. He didn't mention Supergirl or Lanterns, but I think he simply wasn't as involved in those. Gunn also admitted he didn't like the sometimes corporate nature of the studio head job, and said all the characters they created will live on. The HBO series The People vs. Gorilla Grodd is still set for 2027, with Skyler Gisondo returning as Jimmy Olsen alongside Jimmy Tatro as the Flash villain Gorilla Grodd, plus cameos from other DCU characters.

Why the Skydance acquisition made Gunn's exit a surprise

All of this follows Skydance completing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes DC Studios, and there have been other high profile departures on both sides of the merger. When Warner Bros. went up for sale last year and Netflix and Paramount Skydance got into a bidding war, many of us wondered what it would mean for Gunn and Safran. My initial assumption was that they'd be okay, since they were considered huge talent and prized assets in the deal.

So much so that when federal regulators allowed the acquisition to move forward, David Ellison's announcement and a company press release in early October listed Gunn and Safran with their titles as part of the new studio leadership, and Gunn even reposted it in support. Then on a DC Studios podcast posted as recently as October 29th, he discussed his 2021 film The Suicide Squad and its confusing place in DCU canon, while talking about the DCU in the present and future tense. It was clear that he planned to keep building the franchise.

That included his DCU Batman, which he still intended to be separate from Pattinson's Batman in the Matt Reeves films and The Penguin. Gunn originally described it as a Brave and the Bold story pairing Batman with his son Damian Wayne, conceived with Talia al Ghul, as Robin. Lanterns also implied a Bat family in the DCU's Gotham City that could have included Barbara Gordon and Kate Kane. On the podcast, Gunn said casting Batman wasn't far away and that he wanted to pick the best actor for the role. Weird, right? Others also noticed he joked on that same podcast about taking the DC job, saying "I regret it profoundly."

Reporting to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein

So why now? Gunn has spoken publicly about how he and Safran held a unique position at Warner Bros. They didn't report to the people who ran the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. Instead they reported directly to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Gunn talked about preferring that autonomy and having only one boss, even if they might not have liked that boss all that much.

It appears that when Zaslav sold Warner Bros. to Skydance, De Luca and Abdy were ousted and replaced by Ellison's Paramount heads, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. It's possible Gunn and Safran would now have had to report to them in addition to Ellison, and maybe something about that didn't sit well. We don't know for sure. Ben Fritz, the Wall Street Journal entertainment reporter, who I consider one of the most knowledgeable reporters on these stories, reported that Gunn and Safran learned they were out only in the last few days, and that Skydance must have been talking to Latcham for a while.

Fritz then tweeted that Gunn and Safran were indeed ousted, but likely wouldn't have stayed under the new structure where DC Studios reports to Goldberg and Greenstein. He also said they're still planning to debut Wonder Woman in Man of Tomorrow, and that they'd hoped to introduce the DCU Batman in The Brave and the Bold, first saying 2028 before correcting to 2029. He said they were aiming for Gunn directed Superman sequels that evolved into Justice League in 2029 and 2031, but now he's not so sure. If Fritz is accurate, that quick turnaround would explain why Gunn still assumed on October 29th that he'd be casting Batman soon.

The Hollywood Reporter's timeline of the DC Studios shakeup

Reporting from The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit and Aaron Couch, TheWrap's Umberto Gonzalez and Jeremy Fuster, and Puck's What I'm Hearing newsletter has added much more context. The Hollywood Reporter cited an insider claiming this shuffle had been in the works since early fall, starting with Greenstein reaching out to Latcham. The two worked together about 20 years ago, when Latcham was a young Marvel exec and Greenstein was in marketing at Paramount, which released Iron Man and Iron Man 2. They worked together again when Greenstein was at Sony during Spider-Man: Homecoming, Latcham's last Marvel film.

The Hollywood Reporter affirmed the issue of Gunn and Safran now reporting to Greenstein and Goldberg, and added that reportedly they were not forthcoming or were slow in sharing plans, slate details and footage with their incoming bosses. It sounds to me like this source is saying they got ousted partly for taking three weeks to answer an email. But sometimes with a new boss, you don't want to respond right away, especially if you feel they shouldn't be your boss.

The outlet then reported that Gunn and Safran were fired on Friday, November 6th, when Skydance chiefs including Ellison personally arrived at their offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. Reportedly, they were told that despite earlier assurances they'd be part of the new Skydance mega studio, plans had changed. While that was happening, I was less than a mile away at our offices, ironically spending 90 minutes ranking 100 actors Gunn might consider for Batman, completely unaware those plans were being dismantled down the street.

The cornball criticism and Clayface box office

TheWrap cited a producer discussing Gunn and Safran's approach to DC source material: "James seemed to be focused on the corniness of the 1950s DC. He had to adjust from the abject failure of the Zack Snyder era, but I don't think people wanted Cornball." It wasn't clear whether this anonymous producer meant audiences or the new leadership. I also think it's debatable whether 2025's Superman amounts to cornball. It sounds like this producer didn't prefer Gunn's sense of humor.

Some believe Clayface's second weekend box office was part of the reason. I highly doubt it. Clayface had a $40 million budget and has done well enough globally that I'd call it a moderate success. Skydance leadership would have seen tracking in early October and known how it would perform. If anything, the deal Skydance signed to settle the lawsuit from various state attorneys general requires it to release 30 films theatrically per year, which will have to include midsized movies like Clayface.

What happens to Lanterns season 2, Creature Commandos and Mister Miracle

When Lanterns' first season ended in early October, Safran said a decision on a second season would come by the end of the year, so maybe he was facing some uncertainty about his future even then. I know from my own sources that a writers room for season 2 was already being put together, but that doesn't mean the studio officially greenlit it. Under the merger, HBO head Casey Bloys will oversee all direct to consumer content, including everything at Paramount+, so anything Bloys liked at HBO, Lanterns included, could theoretically still move forward.

It's less certain for animated titles like Creature Commandos season 2. Gunn has already written those scripts and casting reports have been coming out, but Creature Commandos came out under the Max side of HBO, which is less part of Bloys' vision for the HBO brand. The Dynamic Duo animated film is still scheduled for September 2028. Gunn had been reading scripts for a Mister Miracle series, and it's not clear what will happen with that.

Who Jeremy Latcham was at Marvel Studios

Latcham has producing credits on many early Iron Man and Avengers films, the first Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming. After leaving Marvel in 2017, he launched his own producing venture behind 2018's Bad Times at the El Royale and 2023's Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Some press reports call him Kevin Feige's right hand man, but the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by my good friend Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales and Gavin Edwards gives a fuller picture. Its fourth chapter describes Latcham as the assistant to David Maisel, who became Marvel Studios president and COO in January 2004.

Don't let that start make him seem unimportant. Feige himself was an assistant to Lauren Shuler Donner before becoming a junior producer on X-Men, and he charted that same path for Latcham and for his own assistant, Stephen Broussard. Latcham went from assistant to junior producer on films like Iron Man, then creative executive on titles like Iron Man 2, while Broussard handled Captain America: The First Avenger. So he was one of three or four of Feige's right hand men. His role grew to the point where he and Feige went to Marvel corporate to defend Gunn writing his mixtape soundtrack into the Guardians of the Galaxy script, and they won that fight for Gunn.

Jeremy Latcham's faith and the culture war framing

A quote has been circulating from a July 2026 interview Latcham gave CBN News, a pro Christian news service. He described how, on the early Marvel films, he'd wonder whether his grandmother would like something, and that became a stand in for whether a film would work for regular families outside the Hollywood bubble. He recalled his grandmother calling after Iron Man came out to say her pastor had preached about the film as a story of redemption. He said the guiding light in those early Marvel days was making things that felt redemptive, hopeful and meaningful.

The Hollywood Reporter found that after Marvel, Latcham moved from California to Texas. Beyond his two bigger titles, his venture has focused on inspirational films like a Wright brothers movie made with the faith based Texas company The Wonder Project, which also made Young Washington with Angel Studios. With The Wonder Project, he also helped make the Prime Video series House of David about the Old Testament figure. That's partly why he's appeared on CBN and podcasts like Bible Bros discussing how his faith affects his decisions. It's not uncommon for Hollywood figures to be vocal about faith; look at Gunn's recurring collaborator Chris Pratt, who has promoted Young Washington.

The Hollywood Reporter said sources "affectionately describe Latcham as a down-the-middle shooter whose goal is to make hits for the masses and get people into movie theaters," contrasting Gunn's salty language and lesser known characters with Latcham being more in line with Ellison's broader tastes. I'd argue Superman was very much designed to be a hit for the masses, and it arguably was, making $619 million worldwide. I'm sensing that much of this framing might hint that Gunn's edgelord humor is misaligned with Ellison's conservative values, and that readers are likely to get stirred up over anything that smells like a possible puritanical agenda. I don't know if that culture war is what's actually going on. The reality probably had more to do with the reporting structure, and Greenstein and Goldberg probably felt Latcham was their guy to execute their vision without friction.

Latcham's expected mandate: Justice League as soon as possible

TheWrap reported that, unlike Gunn's vocal online presence, Latcham is more likely to follow Feige's example of staying out of the spotlight aside from premieres, Comic-Con showcases and tightly controlled interviews. Not for nothing, Latcham deleted his posts on X and locked his account ahead of the announcement. Insiders also expect that, by Ellison's mandate, he'll get Justice League back on the big screen as soon as possible. No more Polka-Dot Man or even modestly known heroes like Supergirl; he'll be expected to get Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and other heavyweights going.

Puck reported: "I'm told plans are already afoot to dismantle much of what Gunn and Safran had plotted out beyond next summer's Gunn-directed Man of Tomorrow, the currently shooting The Batman Part II, and an in-the-works HBO series," meaning The People vs. Gorilla Grodd. So DC goes back into reboot mode. Gunn's alluded to 10 year plan, which I assumed would follow up on Peacemaker's Christopher Smith being stranded in Salvation, Jor-El as a cosmic fascist, and the Bat family hints in Lanterns, all within the Gods and Monsters slate announced in January 2023 (including a Booster Gold series and The Authority, which Gunn has said was shelved), is being replaced. Greenstein and Goldberg are instead entrusting Latcham to fast track alternating Justice League and Batman films.

Is the DCU Batman in jeopardy?

I've raised the possibility that Gunn and Safran's separate DCU Batman might now be in jeopardy or even dead. Gunn said in his Instagram statement that the characters they created will live on, but the DCU Batman hasn't been created yet. We haven't seen or heard of a script or casting choice. Complicating Pattinson's future is reporting that he reportedly did a screen test for James Bond. I don't know about that. It might have been one of those fake leaks meant to drive down the contract rate for the actor they actually plan to sign, perhaps Callum Turner.

James Gunn may have gone from DC's Kevin Feige to DC's Russo brothers

Latcham's success will have less to do with any slate he unveils and more to do with which directors and scripts he greenlights, and some of those scripts will be Gunn's. If Man of Tomorrow succeeds, Gunn is probably going to continue as the driving creative voice. Effectively, he might have shifted from being DC's Kevin Feige to being DC's Russo brothers. And yes, he's now free to return to Marvel and fulfill his Star-Lord promise.

It might come down to Gunn being the rare filmmaker who can build worldbuilding into his films. In the MCU, he gave the Infinity Stones their cosmic backstory with a monologue from the Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, something he later laughed that he wrote in under an hour, and Marvel used it to structure Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. He didn't need to be studio head for that. I still think he can do the same with his next two DCU films. Were those narrative rules ever that enforceable anyway? Even under Gunn, directors and showrunners like Craig Gillespie and Chris Mundy weren't always on his wavelength, and I wonder how much DC audiences care about those rules.

What I do think is that Batman is becoming the central figure of this franchise again. Zaslav stressed regularly released Batman films to Gunn and Safran, but they had the influence to delay that and prioritize The Batman Part II. Latcham won't necessarily have that authority under Goldberg, Greenstein and Ellison. So I believe that starting in 2028, we're going to get Batman films every two years, in 2030, 2032 and beyond. A Batman Beyond film may even be worth considering, since these films don't have to be connected, but either way, they are coming.