Superhero fans woke up to a shake-up this week. James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as the heads of DC Studios, just a few years into their plan to rebuild the DC movie universe. Their replacement is Jeremy Latcham, a longtime Marvel executive who worked under Kevin Feige on films like The Avengers, Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming before starting his own company in 2017.
The timing isn't random. Paramount's $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery has closed, and the combined company, now called Skydance Corporation and run by David Ellison, is reshaping its leadership. Gunn and Safran were brought in by former Warner boss David Zaslav back in 2022.
Their run had real highs and lows. Superman made more than $600 million worldwide, and Clayface pulled in about $109 million on a modest $44 million budget with good reviews. But Supergirl stumbled badly, earning around $126 million against a reported $170 million budget, making it one of the year's bigger flops.
Gunn isn't disappearing. Forbes reports he'll still direct the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, due in summer 2027, and both he and Safran stay on as producers on some projects. Gunn admitted on social media that he disliked the at-times corporate side of the job. In a joint statement, he and Safran said they share a creative history with Latcham from their Marvel days.
The big unknowns are a possible third Superman film and any Justice League plans.
