The DCU is DEAD. James Gunn & Peter Safran Are Out As Presidents of DC Studios

In a surprise executive shuffle, James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as co-presidents of DC Studios. They will be replaced by Jeremy Latcham, who will serve as president and chief creative officer.

Gunn and Safran’s exit is unexpected because they were named as part of David Ellison’s business leadership team when Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had closed in October. After four years as heads of DC, resetting the studio’s comic book division to mixed commercial results, Gunn and Safran will return full time to creative work.

Under their direction, the duo rebooted the languishing DC Universe with last summer’s “Superman,” a relative success with $618 million globally, and stumbled with July’s “Supergirl,” a massive bomb with $126 million on a $170 million budget. “Clayface,” a darker, body-horror thriller, was a modest win with $109 million on a $44 million budget. Meanwhile, DC has expanded on streaming with its “Peacemaker” and “Lanterns” shows for HBO Max. DC’s next big-screen endeavors include next summer’s “Superman: Man of Tomorrow,” written and directed by Gunn, as well as 2028’s “The Batman: Part II,” starring by Robert Pattinson.

This is pretty unexpected for a few reasons. The first is that we are only 3 movies into this new version of the DCU. Like the article says, 'Superman' was a solid success and really great foundation for the new world. If they fucked up something as important as Superhero 1A, they would have been dead in the water. 'Clayface' was also a very solid movie that had, in my opinion, some of the best digital effects I've ever seen in horror. However, as noted by everyone, 'Supergirl' was a massive bomb. And I do think that there are very fair questions to be asked about their overall release strategy with this franchise going from a tier-1 character down to a tier-3 side-character to a tier-3 Batman villain before they even have an actor cast for Batman. 

The second is that they've been really successful in the TV world. Not only have they blown Marvel out of the water, but they're just really good series independent of the comic book genre. They've also done incredible work in animation, but that predates them. The third is that Skydance made a point of saying they wanted to keep them. However, that could just be corporate double speak. 

I think there is a possibility that Skydance just wants wants their paychecks off the books for their post-merger world. Their acquisition of WB was EXPENSIVE and they did not have the money in their individual coffers for it. There is also a possibility that Gunn, who is pretty outspoken, is not thrilled about working for Skydance considering their ties to the Trump admin. Whatever the answer, this is a bummer for DC.