James Gunn and Peter Safran Out! What’s Next for DC?
The last 48 hours haven’t been great for DC fans, as yesterday it was reported that James Gunn and Peter Safran have left their positions as the heads of DC Studios, and there’s already a new person, Jeremy Latcham, taking over as the head of DC Studios. Since yesterday, when this was reported, there’s been a lot of new, interesting information as to what happened. So, let’s talk about it!
James Gunn and Peter Safran OUT: So, this was news that was pretty shocking to see yesterday. Gunn and Safran took these roles in October 2022 and were the heads of DC for about four years, starting the DCU with Creature Commandos last January, but the real kickoff being with Superman last July. With the Warner Brothers and Paramount merger happening recently and becoming Skydance, there’s been a lot of people wondering if Gunn and Safran will keep their positions as the head of DC or if they’ll step down. After the merger happened, it seemed like Gunn and Safran were staying, as they had meetings with David Ellison, the head of Paramount, and it seemed like things were good and they were going to stay. Well, apparently whatever information was given to the public was false because Gunn and Safran are no longer with DC. What’s interesting about this whole situation is that, based on the reports given and a statement made by Gunn, it seemed like Gunn and Safran chose to step down because things weren’t working. Apparently, that’s not the case, as Ellison went to Gunn and Safran on Friday to tell them the news, and Ellison had different plans for all of this and wanted to move in a different direction. The story started off sounding like Gunn and Safran stepped down, but now it sounds like maybe they were fired.
Why? What Happened?: I think the big reason for a lot of this taking place is the struggling success of the DCU. The DCU wasn’t a complete failure; several of the projects did get positive reviews. Superman currently holds an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes; Clayface, which just came out, has a 78%. There is also Supergirl, which was a bit of a miss with only a 52%. We’ve gotten three movies, and two of them have really positive reviews, and one of them has not-so-positive reviews. Then there are the TV shows from Creature Commandos, Peacemaker season 2, and Lanterns. Lanterns was a hit show, but it also polarized audiences; some people really liked it, and other people didn’t like it. Creature Commandos didn’t get a lot of people talking, and Peacemaker season 2 did solid viewing numbers. But I think the problem with the DCU is that none of them had a massive cultural impact. Superman was a profitable film, making $620 million, but it was the first proper Superman movie in 12 years and only made that much money. I think WB was hoping for Superman to be a bigger movie, making more in the range of $800 million. While still being profitable and a hit, it wasn’t as big of a hit as I think audiences and the studio were thinking it was going to be. And then you have Supergirl, which bombed at the box office. There’s no positive way to spin it, but Supergirl bombed hard. It was not a profitable movie and didn’t even make its budget back. Clayface isn’t a super expensive movie; it only cost $40 million to produce. It’s already made $109 million at the box office, so it is profitable. But it’s not a gigantic hit; it is going to be profitable, but when it’s your third movie, you probably want the movie to do better. If you combine the box office for the three DCU movies, it’s only about $854 million. For three movies, with the combined box office under $1 billion, that’s not a great start. If you compare this to the first three MCU movies, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2, those movies combined gross $1.471 billion. Marvel had a stronger start right out of the gate compared to DC. Even the DCEU, their first three movies grossed a combined $2.291 billion. Their TV shows also did solid viewing numbers, but they didn’t have a cultural impact. I don’t know anybody in my personal life who has watched any of those shows. I’m not saying that just because I don’t know people doesn’t mean that people didn’t watch them. Lanterns is a Green Lantern show; it’s tackling one of DC’s more iconic superheroes, but they took the character in a very niche direction. It’s True Detective with Green Lantern, but it’s not a fun Green Lantern show; it’s more serious, and it’s focused on the characters and not this cosmic adventure that’s accessible to everybody. I think that’s another problem with the DCU; they weren’t building momentum because every other project was made for a different audience. Superman and Supergirl were family-friendly projects that everybody, no matter their age could watch them and enjoy them. All of the other projects, like Creature Commandos, Peacemaker season 2, Lanterns, and Clayface, are for adults and older audiences. The season two premiere of Peacemaker has an orgy in it. Lanterns has some sex scenes, and so does Clayface, but Clayface is also a body horror movie that a certain percentage of people are not going to watch. Even the projects that are made for older audiences, they’re also made for different older audiences. Some people just do not like horror movies, so they don’t want to watch Clayface. It was always a weird idea to start a universe with so many niche projects before we had the safe bets with Batman and Wonder Woman. We’re getting a Gorilla Grodd vs. Jimmy Olsen TV show before we’re getting a Batman, Wonder Woman, or Flash movie. We got a Clayface movie, a Batman villain, because we got introduced to Batman. That’s weird. It’s not too big of a surprise that the DCU wasn’t working for people, but there was no target audience for it.
Jeremy Latcham is the New DC Studios Head: This is the kind of other piece of news that dropped yesterday, which was that Jeremy Latcham will be the head of DC starting December 1st, 2026, which means Gunn and Safran are officially out. I hadn’t heard of Latcham’s name before this report. But what’s interesting to know about Latcham is that he worked heavily with Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige. He was working with Feige starting in 2004, and he was one of the people responsible for helping build the MCU from the ground up. He produced several MCU movies, from Iron Man to Spider-Man: Homecoming. Latcham’s title at Marvel was Senior Vice President of Production and Development. He was heavily involved with the MCU during the building-block stages. How involved was he in these movies? I don’t know. But if your title at Marvel Studios is Senior Vice President of Production and Development, that seems to be an important job, which means that he was very involved. If that’s the case and he’s worked closely with Feige, he seems like a good fit to run DC. Feige is a movie producer legend, and I think when you look at Kathleen Kennedy completely running Lucasfilm into the ground and all of this drama with Gunn, I think it reinforces this idea that Feige is truly special and one of a kind. There’s nobody like him who’s making movies quite like him. Is Latcham good at running a studio when he’s not Feige? That’s a good question to ask, and only time will tell. I need to know his master plan for DC and see what he wants to do with DC before I fully have an opinion on him taking over.
What’s Next for DC?: This has been a question that people have been wondering ever since this news broke: what’s next for DC? Well, we do know that Man of Tomorrow is hitting theaters next summer, and we’re also getting The People vs. Jimmy Olson, and it sounds like everything that hasn’t been filmed will be scrapped. Depending on the release of things, The People vs. Jimmy Olson or Man of Tomorrow will be the final entry in the DCU. That’s been in comments made about Robert Pattinson’s Batman and what’s going on with that universe. As of right now, I think the future of DC is going to depend on the success of Man of Tomorrow. If Man of Tomorrow is a critical hit that makes $800 million or more, or maybe it even makes $1 billion, then I think we keep some of these characters and casting around. If Man of Tomorrow flops or underperforms, then I think the future of the DCU and DC as a whole is a little bit up in the air. I liked Superman from last year; I thought Clayface was pretty good, and I do like the casting that they have for the DCU. I want these actors to stick around, but I think that’s a little bit in question right now, given a brand-new leadership change at DC and what Latcham is going to do with it. Time will tell, and I hope that whatever direction DC decides to go in is the right one and can get them on the right path.
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