OPINION / DC STUDIOS — DC finally has an opportunity to get out from under James Gunn and Peter Safran’s leadership. It should take it.
On November 9, Skydance confirmed that former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham would take over as DC Studios president and chief creative officer on December 1. Gunn and Safran are leaving their executive jobs, not being banished from the franchise: both are returning to creative work, including Gunn’s upcoming Man of Tomorrow. That is an important distinction, but it does not weaken the case for new leadership.
Gunn was handed a near-unbelievable roster: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and decades of extraordinary characters. What DC needed was a cinematic vision big enough for all of them. Too often, what it got felt like one filmmaker’s sensibility treated as the house style.
The formula stopped feeling fresh
Gunn’s formula had become trite: assemble lovable misfits, ladle on the wisecracks, undercut sincerity with a self-aware joke, cue a nostalgic needle-drop, and call it subversion. That cocktail worked beautifully in Guardians of the Galaxy. But a trick that feels rebellious the first time can feel like a franchise template the fifth. DC’s heroes should not all be forced to march to the rhythm of the same joke.
Superman can be hopeful without winking at the audience. Batman can be obsessive and unsettling. Wonder Woman deserves mythic grandeur. The characters have wildly different emotional temperatures. A studio head’s job is to protect that range, not shrink it into a single recognizable tone.
One hit was not a coherent universe
Credit where it is due: Gunn’s Superman was a genuine box-office success, earning more than $618 million worldwide. But it does not erase the wider unevenness. Supergirl reached roughly $126.5 million worldwide, while the more modestly scaled Clayface passed $109 million. These are different films with different economics, so declaring all three identical financial tests would miss the point. The bigger issue is whether the slate has given casual viewers an irresistible reason to follow the next chapter.
For this critic, it has not. Announcements and interconnected branding are not the same thing as momentum. The DC universe should feel like a place worth revisiting because each story matters, not because someone promised a sprawling roadmap at a presentation.
Replacing the bosses is only step one
Putting Latcham in charge does not magically fix anything. His Marvel background could bring hard-won franchise discipline, or it could encourage DC to imitate Marvel’s machinery instead of finding its own identity. Neither outcome is guaranteed.
But changing course was justified. Gunn and Safran had four years at the top and a chance to prove their approach could serve every corner of DC. A studio built around a century of icons needs more than idiosyncratic humor and a trailer-friendly playlist. It needs stories with distinct personalities, patient character development and a reason to care about what happens after the credits.
DC does not need to abandon everything Gunn made. It needs to stop mistaking Gunn’s taste for DC’s entire identity. Let him make the films he wants to make. Let someone else give the larger universe a direction.
What do you think: was removing Gunn and Safran from leadership the right call, or is DC repeating the same cycle of executive resets that got it into trouble in the first place?
Reporting and image credit
Leadership announcement: Skydance, November 9, 2026. Box office and upcoming projects: Screen Daily, November 9, 2026. This story is opinion; factual reporting is attributed.
Photo of James Gunn on the Superman set in Cleveland, June 2024, by Erik Drost: Wikimedia Commons source, CC BY 2.0. Original photograph reproduced without modification.
