Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham will become DC Studios’ sole CEO after James Gunn and Peter Safran “stepped down” as co-heads, The Hollywood Reporter reports. The role puts him in charge of creative and financial decisions alike. Gunn and Safran, meanwhile, will continue working on DC projects.
The departures come after David Ellison bought Warner Bros. Discovery and merged it with Skydance. Only a month before the news broke, the new ownership was understood to consider Gunn and Safran “safe”. For Nerdist, that short gap makes the announcement surprising. An exit when the merger happened, or another year or two down the road, would have been easier to anticipate than their departure so soon after those assurances.
It’s not known whether leaving was their decision. The source raises the possibility that Skydance let them resign instead of firing them. It offers no firm answer, however, on whether the pair left willingly, faced pressure to go or were essentially dismissed. Their public comments, and those of the company, have stayed friendly.
In a statement, Skydance co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz said, “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. We’re grateful for their passion, contributions and commitment to this legendary brand.”
Four years have passed since Gunn and Safran were brought in to run the DCU. They have overseen three feature films alongside multiple television shows. The People v. Gorilla Grodd is among their DCU releases still to come, and Gunn is completing post-production on Man of Tomorrow, his Superman sequel. The pair also hold producer roles on The Batman: Part II.
Their joint statement looked back at the releases they oversaw: “Four years ago, we set out to unite DC under one creative vision. In that time, we helped restore Superman to the heart of DC, while opening new doors and telling new stories in film and television with Peacemaker, Creature Commandos ,Lanterns and Clayface,” said Gunn and Safran. “We’re immensely proud of the team that turned that ambition into something real, including the actors, crews and executives we had the opportunity to collaborate with.”
The statement also expressed support for Latcham, who previously worked with Gunn at Marvel Studios. “We’ve shared a creative history with Jeremy going back to Marvel, and we’re eager to see the perspective he brings to DC’s next chapter. 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.” In a separate social media post, Gunn discussed burnout as well as the executive role’s “corporate nature”.
After arriving at Marvel Studios in 2004, Latcham rose to Senior VP of Production and Development and worked closely with Kevin Feige. His work in the MCU spans Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Beyond the leadership change, the future of the universe Gunn and Safran launched is still unsettled. Their original announcements covered many more projects. According to the source, numerous titles were subsequently cancelled, and none of those additional projects are on the horizon. Nerdist sees that reduced pipeline as a possible warning that the two executives’ jobs weren’t as secure as they seemed.
Whether Latcham keeps developing their DCU or starts the superhero franchise over again remains unanswered. On Hollywood employment, Nerdist reaches a firmer conclusion: the merger is eliminating positions, with a single executive taking on duties that previously belonged to two people. For Gunn and Safran, the exit concerns DC’s executive offices rather than its stories; they remain attached to both Man of Tomorrow and The Batman: Part II.
