James Gunn and Peter Safran are no longer at the helm of DC Studios after four years in office, Skydance announced Monday.
They will be replaced by Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham, who will serve as president and chief creative officer of Skydance-owned DC Studios starting December 1.
“James and Peter launched a new era for DC Studios and led it through a period of true transformation, resetting the foundations and building a slate that we are incredibly proud of,” Skydance CEO David Ellison and Co-CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a statement. “We are grateful for their passion, contributions and commitment to this legendary brand.”
Gunn and Safran will now “return full-time to their creative work,” the statement said.
Under their leadership, DC Studios has had a mixed record.
The duo got off to a strong start with 2025’s “Superman,” which grossed more than $618 million in global box office revenue and was widely seen as a major boost to DC Studios’ fortunes after years of underperforming superheroes. At the time of their appointment in 2022, Gunn and Safran were charged with creating a cohesive vision and framework for the DC superhero universe, much like rival studios Marvel, which had long consolidated control under president Kevin Feige.
But not every movie on their list performed like “Superman.”
Earlier this summer, “Supergirl” failed at the box office with a global gross of just $126.5 million on a reported budget of $170 million. The film suffered from mixed reviews.
October’s “Clayface,” however, had a solid opening and a decent theatrical performance. The body horror film tells the story of a Batman villain and grossed about $109 million worldwide on a reported budget of about $40 million – far less than a typical superhero film and more in line with horror movie costs, analysts said.
The departures of Gunn and Safran were unexpected, given that they were among the executives hired to run the new Skydance company after Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. merged. Discovery. The duo will still be involved in 2027’s “Man of Tomorrow,” written and directed by Gunn and produced by Safran and Gunn, as well as “The Batman II,” which they will executive produce.
“Four years ago, we decided to unite DC under a single creative vision,” Gunn and Safran said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of the team who turned this ambition into something real.”
Latcham, the new head of DC Studios, joined Marvel Studios in 2004 and worked closely with Feige to launch Marvel’s flagship franchise. During his tenure, he worked on “Iron Man” in 2008, “Iron Man 2” in 2010 and served as an executive producer on films such as “The Avengers” in 2012 and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” in 2017. He left Marvel in 2017 to start his own production company, Latcham Pictures.
“The opportunity to bring DC’s incredible cast of characters to the screen in a way that excites longtime fans while introducing their timeless stories to the next generation is a huge responsibility that I don’t take lightly,” he said in a statement.
In recent years, superhero movies haven’t been the consistent box office hits they once were, despite some breakout hits such as Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” This has led to concerns in the industry about the genre as a whole.
“DC has had several ups and downs,” said Brent Penter, a research analyst at Raymond James. “It begs the question of what will the future of (the DC Universe) look like?”
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