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James Gunn and Peter Safran are exiting as heads of DC Studios, four years after they took on the role to relaunch the DC movie and TV universe. Marvel alum Jeremy Latcham will take over.
I suppose this isn’t surprising, given Skydance’s David Ellison has been quick to put his mark on the combined WB-Paramount company. The full details of their departure aren’t known yet, and has been characterized as “stepping down.” It’s fair that Gunn just wanted to get back to fully creative work; he even said in his statement he was “relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”
But it’s hard to believe this isn’t what Ellison wanted.
Now, DC finds itself at yet another inflection point. The Zack Snyder years of the “DC Extended Universe” brought the franchise to its knees. 2023 marked the official close of that era, but by that point, Gunn and Safran had already made their intentions known and the four DCEU leftovers released that year — the “Shazam” and “Aquaman” sequels, “The Flash, and “Blue Beetle” — performed as such, grossing less than $1 billion worldwide combined.
Gunn and Safran were brought in to inject DC with new life, which I do believe they did, to an extent. Last year’s Gunn-directed “Superman” grossed over $600 million globally, topping the MCU movies released last year. And HBO’s “Lanterns” was a critical and audience hit, with a 92% critic score and the finale was watched by 10 million viewers in its first few days. And they seemed committed to trying new things.
But red flags had been percolating at the worst time, when Ellison was buying WB. “Supergirl” bombed over the summer, grossing $126 million worldwide. Last month’s horror-infused “Clayface” has earned over $100 million worldwide off of a manageable $40 million budget, meaning it will turn a small profit. It was designed to be more like a small-budget horror than as part of a larger cinematic universe. And it worked in that regard.
But Ellison didn’t buy WB, and inherit these franchises, to be making small-budget DC movies that aren’t building towards a larger universe. Gunn and Safran were also hired by other David (Zaslav) to compete with Marvel, directly mentioning a “10-year plan” akin to what Kevin Feige has done in his announcement a few years back. And that’s something I’m sure Ellison is also keen to do, too.
On that front, aside from “Superman,” they’ve flailed. Do I think they were able to fully realize their vision? No. Could it have rebounded from this year? I was hopeful. “Man of Tomorrow” has promise, but beyond that, the plan they had initially carved out has seen fits and starts. Now, it’s unclear where that plan will go and what will remain. I would guess that David Corenswet is safe as Superman and that Aaron Pierre will have a long run as Green Lantern. Basically, whatever has worked will stick around.
What of HBO Max’s “The People v. Gorilla Grodd,” a true-crime style series starring Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen? It’s been in production, so maybe that will survive. The biggest question mark in Gunn and Safran’s DCU was how and when they would introduce their version of Batman, which was planned to be in a “Brave and the Bold” film starring Batman and Robin. But after “Man of Tomorrow,” I would assume Latcham will chart his own path.
Again, we don’t have all the details of their exit, and it’s likely that they just did not want to be running a studio or cinematic universe, and maybe didn’t get nudged at all. Gunn said as much, and maybe the merger was just a convenient time to exit.
Whatever the case, in reality, Gunn and Safran were probably doomed from the start anyway, due to circumstances outside of their control. They inherited a brand that had been driven into the dirt; were tasked with relaunching a cinematic superhero universe at a time when superhero movies are no longer the center of the cultural zeitgeist; and promised “quality” over quantity, which was obviously at odds with Zaslav’s goal of catching up with Marvel (not to mention, they already fumbled on that promise with “Supergirl” in the eyes of audiences. Sure, the movie has its fans, but it got a B- CinemaScore. People, for the most part, did not like this movie and clearly did not tell their friends to go see it).
So Latcham has his hands full. His Marvel pedigree could help, but that doesn’t change the headwinds that Gunn and Safran were facing. I’ve written before about the decline of superhero movies; yes, the usual suspects of Spider-Man, Batman, and The Avengers will still produce smash hits. But for the most part, there are fewer of them, and those being released are more often than not earning less at the box office. Marvel’s movies released last year are emblematic of that, where the biggest among them barely passed $500 million, MCU Phase 1 numbers.
Now, Latcham will probably be asked to ratchet up the number of releases to not only try to compete with Marvel but also to help Ellison reach the 30-movies-a-year promise he made just to get his cursed merger done (ironically, the kinds of movies like “Clayface” would help in that regard). At a time when audience behavior and interests have so dramatically and obviously shifted, this will undoubtedly fail, and DC will be back to square one again.
But as a DC fan, I hope I’m wrong. The saddest part about the state of DC movies is that DC’s comics division has been firing on all cylinders over the last two years, finally giving Marvel a run for its literal money (I wrote about that here). That’s been thanks largely to DC’s Absolute-branded titles, a line of comics set in an alternate universe that reimagines DC’s most iconic characters and are lighting up the sales charts; over half of the top 50 best-selling comics of 2025 were Absolute titles. They were even featured in Rolling Stone recently, which wrote that the “grim” and “political” universe has “reinvigorated modern comics.”
New readers are being pulled into comics every day. Maybe DC’s movies will find some of that spark, too.
If you like what you just read, follow me on Letterboxd @travclark2 and on Instagram @travisatthemovies.
What I’m into right now
Even though I’ve been criticizing Marvel’s comics output, I read its “Avengers” relaunch by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto, and it’s a promising start. They did great work on Daredevil, so I’m cautiously optimistic.
I saw “Godzilla Minus Zero” in IMAX and you should too, if you can. Incredible.
I watched “In Bruges” for the first time in anticipation of Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” and absolutely loved it.
Beyond the Traverse
📺 In not at all shocking news, Skydance will launch a HBO Max-Paramount+ bundle next year.
🎮 “The Elder Scrolls VI” finally got an official name.
💥 Blumhouse Atomic and comic writer James Tynion IV (Something is Killing the Children, The Department of Truth) struck a first-look deal.
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