DC Studios is changing leadership again. James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as the studio's co-chairmen and co-CEOs after four years in charge, with former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham set to take over the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
The shakeup was reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Monday, with the transition taking effect December 1. Latcham will serve as president and chief creative officer, overseeing DC's film, television and animation slate — its creative direction, production, talent relationships and strategy — and will report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, the co-chairs of the Skydance Motion Picture Group.
The move lands as a genuine surprise because Gunn and Safran had been expected to keep their jobs. Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery closed in October, and the pair were named to the new owner's business leadership team, even as other top Warner Bros. executives were shown the door.
Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz framed the change as a planned transition, saying Gunn and Safran "launched a new era for DC Studios and led it through a period of real transformation." Skydance says the two will work with Latcham to ensure a smooth, collaborative handover before they leave their posts.
Gunn and Safran are not cutting ties with DC. Both will stay on as producers, including on Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel now in post-production, and on The Batman: Part II. In their joint statement, the pair said they set out four years ago to unite DC under one creative vision, crediting their run with restoring Superman to the heart of DC and opening new doors with Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, Lanterns and Clayface, and they pointed to their history with their successor: "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."
Gunn also addressed the change himself in a lengthy statement on Threads, and it was considerably more candid than the corporate version. He admitted he had not been sure he wanted the job when it was offered, called the four years since "trying, to say the least" and wrote, "I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job," crediting Safran with taking the brunt of that side of the work.
The filmmaker said the role consumed even the short breaks he used to take between films, and that he will miss the people around him and being a caretaker of the characters. But he described himself as "incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking," called the Man of Tomorrow process the best filmmaking experience of his life so far, and closed with an assurance aimed at fans of the universe he built: "the characters we set up will live on."
Gunn also noted that he and Safran have been engaged on another DC project he is writing, which leaves his creative footprint on the DCU in place even as the executive title goes away. It closes a four-year run that began in November 2022, when David Zaslav hired the pair to unify DC's film, television and animation output under one creative roof — a mandate few studio heads are ever handed.
Latcham, meanwhile, helped build the Marvel Cinematic Universe's early machinery as a senior vice president of production and development at Marvel Studios, where his time overlapped with Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films. After leaving Marvel in 2017, he ran his own company, Latcham Pictures, and produced Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. He inherits a slate built around the rebooted universe Gunn and Safran launched with Superman in 2025, though Skydance has not said whether the wider announced plans beyond Man of Tomorrow and The Batman: Part II will stay intact under the new leadership.
