For what feels like the fifth time in like 15 years, the fate of live-action DC films feels, like Superman doing donuts around Metropolis, very much in the air. Yesterday (Nov. 9), Skydance announced that DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran were “stepping down” from their posts, leaving former Marvel Studios Senior Vice President of Production and Development, Jeremy Latcham, to step in as the new president and chief creative officer. Latcham, who worked as an independent producer with credits on Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and The Breadwinner, will now be charged with helping to dictate where DC Studios films are headed next. And at this point, it feels like only he knows.
With Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow, as well as Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II, still in the works, we’re left with a major sense of nerd déjà vu. After leaning on Zack Snyder to helm the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) with flicks like Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), the folks at DC began moving away from his vision. Amid creative tensions with the studio, Snyder stepped away from Justice League in 2017 following a family tragedy, and Warner Bros. brought in Joss Whedon to finish and substantially rework the film. The result was a series of half-realized and undercooked flicks without the flawed but consistent hand that had guided them (See: Justice League, The Flash and Wonder Woman 1984).
In October 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that Gunn and Safran would be the new co-CEOs of the then-newly formed DC Studios, effectively marking the end of Snyder's vision for good. The following January, they announced their new DC Universe, with the first chapter being called Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. The first major entry was the animated series Creature Commandos in 2024. Then there was July 2025's Superman reboot. Then came Peacemaker Season 2, which Gunn actually wrote himself.
While Creature Commandos seemed like an odd appetizer, it, along with Peacemaker Season 2 and Superman, earned critical acclaim. But then Supergirl arrived and earned only $126.5 million at the global box office. Its production budget was $170 million. DC got back on track with the critically lauded Lanterns, which also averaged 19.3 million viewers globally during its run on HBO and HBO Max. Released last month, Clayface earned solid critical reception to go with approximately $109 million at the box office on a reported $40 million production budget. Gunn himself counted the film's release among the highlights of his tenure.
But now, although he's being retained as a creative in the DC Universe, he is out of the leadership role he says he didn't enjoy all that much. He and Safran leave their primary leadership posts. And they also leave fans with questions.
After years of ultimately low-stakes, but still annoying turmoil, what are fans facing next?
We get to that question and related ones below. Check them out for yourself: 10 crucial questions we have after the departure of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Why did Skydance think the DCU needed to change?
We don’t know for sure, but it sounds like they thought Gunn was a little too much of a hipster. When the folks at Warner Bros. hired James Gunn to head the studio around the time Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe (DCEU) was winding down, it was clear they were hoping he could conjure the same magic he had for the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy. You could say that he brought that with the reboot of Superman, which earned critical acclaim and $618 million at the global box office. That was good, but maybe not good enough for Skydance’s lofty expectations for the world’s first superhero. But according to TheWrap, Gunn’s focus on lesser properties may not have been what the new owners wanted. Today (Nov. 10), the publication reported that insiders believe Gunn’s emphasis on lesser-known DC characters was a significant part of the problem.
Throughout his four-year stint working as DC Studios’ co-president, Gunn wrote and directed one season of Peacemaker while, alongside Safran, executive-producing Lanterns and producing Supergirl and Clayface. For every Superman, there was a Peacemaker. For every Lanterns, there was a Creature Commandos. Aside from the forthcoming Man of Tomorrow, another upcoming project on their slate was a TV series focused on Gorilla Grodd. While most of these projects, besides Supergirl, earned largely favorable reviews, properties like Peacemaker and Clayface were never likely to do the theatrical numbers of, say, the next non-Matt Reeves Batman flick. By the time Supergirl had flopped at the box office, Skydance was apparently looking at a different approach. TheWrap reports that Skydance CEO David Ellison had been quietly discussing the job with Latcham more than a month before the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger closed on Oct. 6. Ouch.
How will Skydance change the DCU?
If you let Skydance tell it, the new regime, which will officially begin on Dec. 1, will see that “every film and television show will be ushered from start to finish through the prism of the legions of fans who love and champion it.” Non-corporate-speak translation: Jeremy Latcham won’t be doing that other weirdo shit James Gunn was doing. In Skydance’s mind, fans want their triple cheeseburgers and fries with a cherry pie and a Coke, not that specialized oyster food truck in Williamsburg.
Insiders expect Skydance to put its superhero movie biz back on the fast track to a new Justice League movie, with a greater emphasis on heavyweights like Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and The Flash. Because rushing superhero team-ups worked so well with Zack Snyder, right?
How much control does James Gunn still have at DC Studios?
In layman’s terms, neither Gunn nor Safran is the head honcho anymore. But Gunn at least is still locked into plans for the future.
According to Skydance, Gunn is still writing and directing Man of Tomorrow, which is in post-production. Safran is acting as a producer alongside him. Meanwhile, both are listed as producers on The Batman Part II and as executive producers on The People v. Gorilla Grodd. So, yeah, it looks like Gunn will still have his say over at least some of the projects he’s working on.
In a statement, he even says he’s writing a new DC project, though there's no guarantee it'll actually get made.
What happens to David Corenswet’s Superman?
At press time, Corenswet will at least play Superman/Clark Kent through Man of Tomorrow, which has wrapped filming, entered post-production, and is set to hit theaters on July 9, 2027.
In my view? Replacing an already successful Superman and establishing a new continuity would not vibe with DC’s reported “make a Justice League movie, STAT” plan. But TheWrap reports that Man of Tomorrow was intended to help build out Gunn’s larger universe, introducing more heroes who could eventually factor into bigger interconnected stories. Whether that larger plan survives is now up to the new leadership.
Whatever actually happens, Gunn will just have to go with the flow. Or, I guess, just go.
What about the new Batman?
As recently as last month, Gunn himself admitted that initial plans for Batman: The Brave and the Bold—a live-action Dark Knight flick originally set to center on Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian—had changed. In a clip from The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon?, Gunn also confirmed that a new Batman for the forthcoming non-Robert Pattinson Batflick hadn’t been cast, but said he wanted the actor to be around the same age as Superman lead David Corenswet, who is 33. That’s what Gunn was saying, but again, he doesn’t have the final say anymore.
Insiders expect DC and Skydance to prioritize new Batman material. But how will they go about it? Do they still stick to Gunn’s plan to have a separate Batman franchise, or do they work Pattinson into the new DC film universe, assuming that film universe stays intact to begin with?
Does this affect Matt Reeves’ Batman?
Matt Reeves and James Gunn had, from the beginning of whatever working relationship they had, planned to keep Reeves’ Batman separate from whatever Batman shares the screen with Corenswet’s Superman. And it makes sense: Reeves’ Batman is Christopher Nolan-esque in that it thrives in gritty realism. There are no super-powered beings we've seen in Reeves’ Gotham City. With Skydance’s reportedly renewed interest in fast-tracking the Justice League and prioritizing Batman, will that remain the case? After all, The Batman made over $772 million at the box office.
Artistically, it makes sense, but if you’re only thinking about the dollar, keeping those worlds separate could feel like a waste of money. Even more immediately—if you can call it that—Reeves was planning a trilogy. Is that…still going to be a thing? Or…
Have we seen the last of Peacemaker?
Gunn had already told us that there were no immediate plans for a new season of Peacemaker. But he didn't rule out a third season entirely, and he did indicate that the characters and elements of the story could appear in other properties. One thing is certain: if Skydance wasn’t happy with Gunn’s superhero side quests, and Gunn himself already had no immediate plans for another season, it wouldn’t be too surprising if we’ve already seen the last of John Cena as the lovable but troubled dude-bro antihero.
Will we see any more Lanterns?
As successful as Lanterns was, averaging 19.3 million viewers globally, Peter Safran already said there would only be a Season 2 if the writers concocted a story worthy of it. A writers' room has been developing ideas, but the show hasn't officially been renewed. Still, Aaron Pierre is set to appear in Man of Tomorrow, and it feels unlikely that they'd waste a pretty big IP like Green Lantern.
In a world of such few sure things—one where the new leadership reportedly wants a Justice League—I’d bet we’ll at least see John Stewart and potentially other characters from the show again. And quite prominently.
What will be considered canon?
There’s a cruel irony in the fact that, just last month, James Gunn appeared on a special episode of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast about what was and wasn’t canon in the DC film universe. In fact, he said The Suicide Squad could be considered the DCU’s first canon film, with a small caveat about Harley Quinn's future. Now, that question will become harder than ever as Skydance and DC execs decide whether to preserve the film continuum Gunn and Safran started or change its rules. But alas, Zack Snyder had to go through a version of the same thing.
What does succes look like for Latcham?
There is no single metric for absolute success, but Superman’s $618 million box office total is objectively moderately impressive. But based on TheWrap's reporting on Skydance's priorities, the new owners appear to want bigger results for a property so iconic. Meanwhile, Supergirl underperformed by any measure, and even though it only cost $40 million to make, Clayface’s $109 million worldwide gross through its first three weekends isn't necessarily the sort of blockbuster triumph DC’s new owners are looking for. That's a respectable return for a modestly budgeted body horror villain origin story, but it isn't Superman money. I could see the next Superman outperforming the first one, and there’s so much hype for The Batman Part II, a billion dollars doesn’t feel completely out of reach. But considering the first Batman grossed about $773 million, neither outcome is exactly guaranteed.
But all of this raises an important existential question for the folks at DC. It might have felt like an overnight sensation, but the MCU began with a series of risks. Robert Downey Jr. was a controversial casting choice for Iron Man, and Captain America was never the commercial force of Spider-Man or the X-Men. But, by the time the MCU got its engine going, D-List characters like Ant-Man were doing Superman numbers. Seriously: Ant-Man and the Wasp grossed over $623 million worldwide. It just took time.
With their second major regime change in a few years, you have to wonder if DC has given their creatives enough of it.
