James Gunn and Peter Safran Step Down at DC Studios as Marvel Veteran Jeremy Latcham Takes Over
James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as the co-heads of DC Studios after four years in charge, Skydance Motion Picture Group announced on Monday, November 9. Former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham will take over as president and chief creative officer of the comic-book studio, effective December 1, 2026.
The announcement ends one of the most closely watched leadership runs in Hollywood and hands the future of Superman, Batman, and the rest of the DC universe to a veteran of the rival Marvel machine. It also comes barely five weeks after Skydance completed its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of DC Studios.
A sudden reversal after the merger
When the Skydance deal closed on October 6, Gunn and Safran appeared safe. The pair had been named to Skydance chairman and chief executive David Ellison’s business leadership team, and Ellison had publicly told them to keep doing what they were doing. The Hollywood Reporter noted that Gunn said as recently as last month that Ellison “knows everything” about their DC plans.
That arrangement is now over. Skydance announced the change on the same morning it reported third-quarter earnings, its first results since the merger closed.
In a statement, Ellison praised the outgoing pair. “James and Peter launched a new era for DC Studios and led it through a period of real transformation, resetting the foundation and building a slate we’re incredibly proud of,” he said. “We’re grateful for their passion, contributions, and commitment to this legendary brand.”
Latcham will report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, the co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group. Under the old structure, Gunn and Safran reported directly to Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, and briefly to Ellison after the takeover.
Whether Gunn and Safran chose to leave or were pushed out has not been publicly established. The Hollywood Reporter describes the pair as “stepping down,” while Variety’s initial headline used the word “fired,” though its article describes them as stepping down. The official announcement frames the move as a transition back to creative work, and no official reason for the change has been given.
Who is Jeremy Latcham?
Latcham is a longtime Marvel Studios executive who rose to senior vice president of production and development under Marvel chief Kevin Feige. He worked on the first wave of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Iron Man and The Avengers, and later on Guardians of the Galaxy, where he worked directly with Gunn, and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
He left Marvel in 2017 to found Latcham Pictures, producing films including Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Bad Times at the El Royale. He has been out of the superhero business for nearly a decade, which makes his return to the genre — now on the DC side — one of the more striking details of the announcement.
“I’ve had the privilege to help bring some of the most celebrated superhero stories to life on the big screen, and I’m excited and honored for the opportunity to now lead DC Studios into its next era,” Latcham said in a statement.
Goldberg and Greenstein said Latcham “brings a deep reverence for DC and its passionate fanbase, recognizing that they are the very foundation of this storied, multigenerational brand.”
In his new role, Latcham will oversee DC’s film, television, and animation slate, with authority over the creative pipeline, production, talent, and overall strategy.
Four years of rebuilding — and mixed results
Gunn and Safran took charge of DC Studios in October 2022, hired by Zaslav to reboot the franchise after years of uneven results and shifting plans. Their mandate was to build a single connected universe across film and television, starting fresh with a new Superman.
Their first film, Superman, reached theaters in 2025 and grossed about $618 million worldwide, according to Variety. It struck a lighter, more comedic tone than the darker Superman films directed by Zack Snyder, and it was widely seen as a creative reset even if it did not reach the box-office heights of the biggest superhero hits.
The follow-up was rougher. Supergirl, released earlier this year, flopped, taking in roughly $126 million worldwide against a reported production budget of about $170 million. Clayface, a horror-inflected take on the Batman villain that opened in late October, has grossed about $109 million on a $44 million budget — profitable, but modest for a comic-book release.
The pair also built out television, including the series Lanterns, now streaming on HBO Max, and had mapped out a decade of projects across film and TV. That long-term plan is now in question. Skydance has not said which parts of the Gunn-Safran roadmap Latcham will keep, change, or cancel.
What happens to Man of Tomorrow and The Batman Part II?
The most immediate question for fans is what happens to the projects already in motion. The good news for DC audiences is that the two biggest films on the slate appear to be proceeding.
Gunn is currently in post-production on Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, which is scheduled for release on July 9, 2027. He and Safran will remain involved with the film as producers, and Gunn has said he is returning to full-time creative work.
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“We’re excited to return to what drew us to this job in the first place, which is telling the stories we love, including the next chapter of Clark and Lex’s journey in Man of Tomorrow,” Gunn and Safran said in their joint statement.
The Batman: Part II, the sequel to Matt Reeves’s 2022 hit, also remains on the slate, along with the series The People v. Gorilla Grodd. But beyond those named projects, the future of the wider DC Universe — the interconnected plan Gunn and Safran spent four years building — is unclear. No comprehensive update on the slate has been announced.
Gunn says he is relieved to return to filmmaking
Gunn, a filmmaker first and an executive second, sounded relieved in a lengthy statement shared on social media on Monday. He said the corporate demands of running a studio had been “trying” and that he was “incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”
He also made clear that he is not finished with DC. “That’s not to say Peter and I are immediately done with DC or superheroes,” he wrote. “We have Man of Tomorrow out this summer. And we’ve just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that.”
That unidentified project is now one of the open questions hanging over the studio. Gunn has not said what it is, and it is far from guaranteed to move forward under new leadership.
Why this matters
The DC shake-up is the clearest sign yet of how thoroughly Skydance intends to reshape Warner Bros. Discovery. The merger, which closed just over a month ago, was one of the largest media deals in years, and the new owners have moved quickly to put their own people in charge of the company’s most valuable franchises.
For moviegoers, the stakes are concrete. DC’s characters — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman — are among the most valuable in Hollywood, but the studio has struggled for a decade to turn them into a consistent, connected franchise to rival Marvel. Gunn and Safran were hired to solve that problem. Their exit, four years in, leaves the job unfinished and the next chapter in someone else’s hands.
For the wider industry, the timing is notable. The announcement landed on a day when stocks staged their best day since April, and it capped a year in which franchise filmmaking has faced hard questions about budgets, audience fatigue, and the limits of connected universes. Latcham, who helped build the Marvel model that DC spent years chasing, now has to decide how much of that model still works.
The shake-up also lands in a crowded season for screen franchises, from the return of The Rings of Power on Prime Video to the next wave of superhero releases. Audiences have more big-budget fantasy and comic-book entertainment competing for their attention than ever before — and less patience for the installments that do not deliver.
Latest developments
- Skydance announced the leadership change on Monday, November 9, 2026, alongside its third-quarter earnings report.
- Jeremy Latcham takes over as president and chief creative officer of DC Studios on December 1, 2026.
- Gunn and Safran will step away from day-to-day leadership but remain involved creatively as producers, including on Man of Tomorrow.
- Gunn said he is writing another, unidentified DC project, but its future under the new leadership is not confirmed.
- No changes to the release plans for Man of Tomorrow (July 9, 2027) or The Batman: Part II have been announced.
Frequently asked questions
Why are James Gunn and Peter Safran leaving DC Studios?
Skydance announced on November 9, 2026, that the pair are stepping down as co-heads of DC Studios after four years. The official announcement frames the move as a return to creative work, and no official reason for the change has been given. Whether they chose to leave or were pushed out has not been publicly established.
Who is replacing James Gunn at DC Studios?
Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel Studios executive who worked on Iron Man, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy, will become president and chief creative officer of DC Studios on December 1, 2026. He will oversee the studio’s film, television, and animation slate.
Will Man of Tomorrow still be released?
Yes, as far as has been announced. Gunn is in post-production on Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, which is scheduled for release on July 9, 2027. Gunn and Safran remain involved as producers.
What happens to the DC Universe Gunn built?
That is the open question. Gunn and Safran mapped out a decade of connected DC projects, but Skydance has not said which parts of that plan Jeremy Latcham will keep, change, or cancel. The Batman: Part II and Man of Tomorrow are the two major projects confirmed to be moving forward.
The DC Studios era that began in October 2022 is ending sooner than almost anyone in Hollywood expected — and with a Marvel veteran now in charge, the next era of DC films will look very different from the one James Gunn and Peter Safran designed. What survives of their plan, and what Latcham builds in its place, will become clear in the months ahead, starting with the first decisions he makes after taking over on December 1.
Sources: Associated Press (via Fast Company); Variety; Screen Realm; Radio Times; Rolling Stone India.
