Four years after taking charge of DC's movie universe, James Gunn and Peter Safran are suddenly on their way out.
James Gunn and Peter Safran will leave their jobs running DC Studios, Skydance announced on Nov. 9, 2026, ending a four-year run that began with big plans and ended with questions about spending and box office returns. Former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham will take over as president and chief creative officer starting Dec. 1.
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How The James Gunn And Peter Safran DC Studios Exit Unfolded
The news came together fast. On Friday, Nov. 6, Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz walked into Gunn and Safran's offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two DC Studios heads were told the new Skydance leadership team would not include them, despite earlier assurances that they'd stay on board after the merger closed.
Three days later, on Nov. 9, Skydance made it official. The company said Gunn and Safran would step away from their roles as co-chief executives and co-chairmen of DC Studios. The announcement framed it as a shift rather than a firing, saying both men would return full time to creative work. Still, multiple outlets, including Variety and the New York Times, described the move as a surprise even to people close to the situation.
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Why Spending And Supergirl's Box Office Mattered
The timing lines up with a much bigger corporate shakeup. Just weeks earlier, Paramount closed its roughly $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, putting DC Studios under Skydance's control for the first time. That merger gave Ellison and his team the power to rethink who runs what across the company, and DC Studios became an early target.
Money problems sit at the center of this story. Gunn and Safran's first big theatrical swing, Superman, starring David Corenswet, pulled in about $618 million worldwide on a $225 million budget. That's technically a profit. But according to Variety, the new Skydance ownership didn't see it as a strong enough result for a character as famous as Superman. They wanted a true cultural moment, not just a film that broke even comfortably.
Then came Supergirl in June 2026. Ticket sales fell short of expectations, and several outlets, including People and The Hollywood Reporter, described it as a genuine box office disappointment. Put side by side, a modestly profitable Superman and a struggling Supergirl painted a picture Skydance didn't like: high spending without the audience excitement needed to justify it.
What Skydance And Gunn Have Said Publicly
Skydance's official statement kept things diplomatic, saying Gunn and Safran would help make sure there's a smooth and collaborative handoff to Latcham. The company also said both men would keep contributing creatively, including work tied to the upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow.
Gunn himself spoke about the experience shortly after the announcement, calling the last four years trying as he balanced making movies with running a studio, according to Deadline. He didn't dispute the decision publicly, and neither he nor Safran have shared full details about their future contracts or exactly which DC projects they'll keep working on.
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Latcham isn't a random pick. He spent years at Marvel Studios as a senior vice president of production and development, working on franchise films during some of that company's biggest growth years. Bringing him in suggests Skydance wants someone with hands-on experience managing a shared universe at scale, not just someone with filmmaking credentials.
He'll report to Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein once he officially starts Dec. 1. That reporting structure puts DC Studios more firmly inside Skydance's broader film operation, rather than running as its own semi-independent unit the way it did under Gunn and Safran.
What Comes Next For The DC Universe
The real test starts now. Gunn and Safran aren't vanishing completely, they're expected to stay connected to select projects, including Man of Tomorrow. But Latcham will have the authority to adjust budgets, release schedules, and creative direction across DC's slate.
Whether Skydance sticks with the interconnected universe Gunn originally designed, or starts trimming and reshaping it, will become clear in the coming months. For now, the James Gunn and Peter Safran DC Studios exit marks one of the biggest executive changes in superhero movie history, and it's a direct result of new owners demanding better returns on a very expensive bet.
