The DC Universe has been shaken up after Skydance purchased Warner Bros. a year after purchasing Paramount Studios. James Gunn and Peter Safran, the co-CEOs of DC Studios, were effectively fired and replaced with Marvel Studios veteran Jeremy Latcham. It’s not entirely a surprise, since cleaning house at DC has been a staple of the many mergers that saw WB pass from Time Warner to AT&T and then into the careless hands of David Zaslav at Discovery.
Since the launch of Marvel Studios, DC has been second-fiddle to the studio despite beating them to the big screen by decades. Interesting, this fate mirrors what happened in the 1960s when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the other creative geniuses at the House of Ideas saved comic books as a medium when they launched the “Marvel Age” of comics. What’s most surprising is that both Gunn and Safran were part of the list of leaders CEO David Ellison published after the merger finalized just last month.
What Does James Gunn’s Ouster Mean For DC Studios?
Their tenure at DC Studios has been hit-and-miss, but is ultimately a decent track record at this stage of the comic book cinematic franchise game. The most recent release, Clayface, got middling reviews and a fair box office. It’s $109 million box office means it wasn’t a flop, but the film just before it, Supergirl, was. Similarly, Superman didn’t break any records. On television, shows like Creature Commandos, Peacemaker and Lanterns were much more successful, but they were all aimed at niche, adult audiences with their TV-MA fare.
According to Gunn’s letter (published in full below), the universe they started will “go on.” His Super-Family sequel Man of Tomorrow is still set to hit theaters in the summer. (Though, the debt management decisions around DC movies after mergers proves a nearly-finished film is not a sure-thing.) It also seems unlikely that Latchman would reboot the characters so soon after they were just rebooted. What Gunn and Safran set into motion will likely continue, it just probably won’t be the larger story that they shaped.
Of the ten projects Gunn announced in the above “Gods and Monsters” video only four came to fruition: Creature Commandos, Superman, Supergirl and Lanterns. Shows like Waller, Booster Gold, and a series set on Paradise Island have all stalled or been killed. A movie based on the Authority is also not happening. James Mangold’s Swamp Thing and Andy Muscietti’s The Brave and the Bold (starring Batman and Damian Wayne’s Robin) are also in limbo or dead. Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Corporate executives often force creatives to announced projects before they are ready to drive up stock prices.
The future of the DCU is in doubt, for sure. With the merger-happy Skydance shouldering some $80 billion in debt, it’s not the only Warner Bros. or Paramount franchise whose next steps are uncertain. Still, just as AT&T’s new ownership killed Zack Synder’s DC Extended Universe before it ever took off, it seems David Ellison and Skydance’s leaders are making the same play. Whether it’s a mistake is up to each fan to decide for themselves, but Gunn’s DCU never really got a chance to take off.
Read James Gunn’s Full Message After Stepping Down From DC Studios
From James Gunn’s Instagram: Oh, boy. What a four years.
Thanks to all of you who have supported me and Peter in our time as the heads of DC Studios.
When I was a kid growing up in Manchester, Missouri, I used to write and draw my own comics with a mix of DC Comics characters and my own characters. Having full access to these characters to do whatever we wanted has been a dream come true. I didn’t know if I wanted this job when it was offered to me, but I just couldn’t pass up the unique opportunity. I’m glad I took the job.
There have been so many highs along the way – releasing Superman and Clayface, making Peacemaker, reading the scripts to The People Vs, the entire process of Man of Tomorrow, which thus far has been the best filmmaking experience of my life, and numerous other moments.
The highest of the highs have been all the talented and wonderful people I’ve worked with and grown to love: the DC Studios crew, our talented collaborators, our casts and crews, and the boisterous and hilarious fans. And the best part of all has been working with Peter Safran, the smartest and most competent person I know. You’ve been the best partner a person could ask for, and, more so, a truly good friend.
But what only the closest people to me have known over the past four years is my time at DC Studios has been trying, to say the least. I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job (thanks to Peter for taking the brunt of that). I’m always a very hard worker, but as a filmmaker I would at least get to take short breaks to unwind, and I’ve stolen even that time from both myself and my loved ones over the past four years (Jenn, I love you and I’m sorry and you don’t need to feel guilty for being the happiest of all people that I’m no longer doing this job). And the thing my ADHD hyperfocus has had the most difficulty with has been dividing my time between projects I’m incredibly passionate about and the ones I’m not so much and all the things I have to do as a studio head.
So, yes, I will miss the people around me, and I will miss being the co-caretaker of these great characters, but I’m also incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.
That’s not to say Peter and I are immediately done with DC or superheroes. We have Man of Tomorrow out this summer. And we’ve just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that. And, of course, the characters we set up will live on.
Thank you so very, very much for embracing the characters and stories we’ve put on screen.
Love and gratitude,
James Gunn
