David Ellison’s Skydance replaces DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran with a Marvel veteran

Detailed summary

Superman director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran helped launch DC Studios in 2022. A month after its Warner Bros. takeover, Skydance has handed the job to a Marvel veteran.

Skydance has removed James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios, ending a four-year run that began with a hit Superman and was expected to survive the company’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Their replacement is Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel Studios executive who helped launch the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Skydance Motion Picture Group announced the change on Nov. 9. Latcham starts Dec. 1 as president and chief creative officer of DC Studios, overseeing its film, television, and animation slate.

The move puts Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the DC Comics roster under new creative control barely a month after Skydance closed its deal. It also resets a franchise strategy that Warner Bros. has now restarted twice in 13 years.

Paramount completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6 and renamed the combined company Skydance. Early reports said Gunn and Safran would keep their jobs, even as Warner Bros. film chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were expected to give way to Paramount’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein.

That assurance did not hold. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz visited Gunn and Safran’s office on Nov. 6 to deliver the news in person.

Gunn and Safran will still produce DC projects, and they are finishing post-production on Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel slated for July 2027. Latcham reports to Goldberg and Greenstein, now co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group.

“I’ve had the privilege to help bring some of the most celebrated superhero stories to life on the big screen, and I’m excited and honored for the opportunity to now lead DC Studios into its next era,” Latcham said in a statement.

Gunn and Safran took over DC Studios on Nov. 1, 2022, hired to reboot the DC characters as a single connected universe. The deal came months after Discovery merged with WarnerMedia to form Warner Bros. Discovery.

Gunn arrived as a proven…

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