The 6 Biggest Priorities For DC’s James Gunn Replacement (Including Batman)

Published Nov 10, 2026, 8:30 AM EST

Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
 

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In a shocking twist, the first era of the DCU is over, as James Gunn is out as DC's creative lead. He and Peter Safran have confirmed they will move out of their roles as heads of DC in December, to be replaced by former Kevin Feige protégé Jeremy Latcham. This is the first major move by the Ellisons after their controversial purchase of Warner Brothers and the ramifications could be huge.

Since its inception in 2020, the DCU hasn't worked out exactly as it was intended to. The initial slate of announced DCU movies and TV shows hasn't quite gone fully to plan, but you still have to admire the bravery of leading with some unexpected projects. Some will say the writing was on the wall when Supergirl became one of 2026's biggest box office busts, but the full story of why James Gunn gets more complicated as time passes. Despite reported assurances of his value, he was moved on by the Ellisons, though he will seemingly remain on-board as one of the DCU's storytellers. For now.

The question now should move to what comes next. Will the future DCU slate continue with the plan that Gunn and Safran set out? Will the projects that we know are in development continue to be developed under Jeremy Latcham? There are a lot of fascinating questions, and the new DCU head will want to hit the ground running, especially with so much discourse already blossoming around the news. With that in mind, he could do a lot worse than accomplish these six priorities as soon as possible.

6 Clarify The Reboot & The Batman Questions LOUDLY

Credit: MovieStillsDB

If Jeremy Latcham decides to be as public in his new role as James Gunn has always been - and that's probably unlikely - we might learn quite a lot about what's happening soon. Fundamentally, however he chooses to do it, he needs to get control of the narrative very quickly. Clear communication has to be one of his biggest priorities.

Almost instantly after the news of Latcham's impending takeover of the DCU on December 1, three questions began to trend pretty enthusiastically among DC fans. The first to address here is the question of Zack Snyder, which, in all likelihood, is not going to be something that he will engage with. Latcham has very publicly said he has less interest in making R-rated movies and targeting as broad an audience as possible. There is a possibility that the Ellisons may have some plans for the abandoned Snyderverse, but they've handled control to Latcham, and they want to make money: does Snyder's vision really fit the new lead's lean towards PG-13?

More pressing is the question of whether the DCU is going to be rebooted. You could argue that it might not be the worst idea, given the intertwined nature of Gunn's established superhero universe, which has meant that keeping up with every single project was mandatory, and that is what has caused a lot of burnout in the MCU. That said, the DCU is still very new and, should it be deemed necessary, a lot of the tie-ins between projects can be reshuffled, and it seems somewhat unlikely that the successful parts - Superman especially - would be jettisoned to reboot everything this early.

Whatever the case, Latcham needs to be very clear of what's happening. Do not half-reboot. Do not let things die on the vine. Either do it or don't. And get to it quickly.

And then there's the question of The Batman. When Robert Pattinson's James Bond audition was revealed, questions of his Batman future began appearing online. How could somebody tackle two such massive franchises at once, after all? The DCU executive shift does impact oversight on Matt Reeves' Batman universe, of course, so people will talk, and Reeves' approach so far has been slow by design. Not allowing the conversation to get out of hand if the plan is indeed still to make movies beyond The Batman: Part 2 is very crucial, and that needs to be underlined almost immediately. And if that side of things is also coming to an end, it needs to be put out of its misery.

5 Get Batman On The Board

So far, the movie side of the DCU has been very Superman-centric - as demanded by David Zaslav, apparently - and even though Matt Reeves' Batman universe is still ongoing, there have always been big plans for a main DCU Batman to join the fray. That was supposed to happen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but progress there has been very slow, and promises of casting news have largely gone quiet.

Plainly, the DCU needs Batman. There are multiple ways of achieving that too: first, we could get movement on The Brave and The Bold. A reiteration of the creative team, a clarification of the title and story (is Damian Wayne even involved at this point?), and an actor. It could also mean pulling away from The Brave and the Bold plans entirely and going in a new direction.

Then there's the rogue third option of expanding Matt Reeves' universe to confirm that the third part will go ahead with more spin-offs (including a sequel to The Penguin), and leaving the DCU's version on ice until that's finished with. The chosen approach doesn't matter as long as Batman is on the board for the long term. We need to know Batman has a future in live-action and that he's a priority, even if it just means confirming that a new iteration will follow the completion of Reeves' trilogy.

Ideally, for a lot of fans, Pattinson would be brought into the DCU as the main Batman, but that doesn't seem at all likely without a major shift. If he gets the Bond role, it seems like even more of a long shot. If, as expected, that's not the case - or worse, The Batman Part 3 is canned - then casting the DCU's new Batman needs to be prioritized, and it needs to be done loudly.

4 Reset The Slate

Because of the apparent policy to announce DCU projects when they're in early development rather than when they are concrete projects, there is a fair amount of question over some of the movies and TV shows we expected to be part of the Gods and Monsters chapter of the DCU. Things like The Authority and Waller have gone quiet. Blue Beetle standalone's future is a bit of a head-scratcher. Wonder Woman's prequel show has also been up for doubt, and there are other things that could do with some clarification.

The attempt to emulate the MCU with a fully rounded slate on the initial announcement of the DCU made business sense, but now, as those projects have stumbled or gone quiet, it looks a little like the plans are in flux. Confirming the status of all of these projects with a nice big, MCU-like ongoing slate wouldn't be a bad idea if DC could do a late-2026 answer to the DCU's Comic Con from a few years ago. That would be ideal, but time is running out this year, and it's more likely that that would be too much of an ask. We do need some idea of what the brand is going to look like in at least the next two years, in concrete terms.

If this means canceling some of the more unexpected projects and focusing on the core that matters to fans, then that's what needs to be done.

3 Find The DCU's Answer To Spider-Man

Don't get it twisted, this is not a call to arms to give the DCU a copycat of Spider-Man. We sort of have that already in Blue Beetle, who hits some of the same audience demographics as the MCU's Peter Parker, at least in terms of his age. But he's not really the right type of competition, and it's not just about finding a similar character.

Really, what the DCU needs is an absolute box office titan like Spider-Man. Even as the MCU has struggled with some of its non-Avengers projects, Spider-Man has actually grown in power at the box office, putting another $2 billion on the books this year, and he's a powerhouse who injects a lot of money every time he's rolled out.

If the new DCU executive team can identify who their answer to this question is, then it should be rolled out. Is it the Justice League? Is it a new Batman? Is it an unseen mystery character nobody has thought of yet? Does this brand within DC even exist? Whatever the case, at this stage - especially after Supergirl's financial failure - they need a sure thing.

2 Confirm Wonder Woman & Complete The Trinity

Superman is already here, and David Corenswet's take on the character is an all-timer and should be allowed to continue without question. The Batman conundrum has already been addressed above, and either way, you have to think that the DCU will have its own Batman soon. That just leaves Wonder Woman.

There have been rumors of a Wonder Woman movie separate from the apparently troubled Paradise Lost, but everybody seems to have been quite shy about the project. Even though Wonder Woman 1984 was not as big a success as Gal Gadot's original movie, Wonder Woman is an important building block in DC lore, and she needs to be confirmed. Fans demand it.

There is still, of course, a pretty big possibility that Man of Tomorrow reveals Wonder Woman, but at this stage, it's almost the case that DC should just outright spoil that reveal ahead of time - if only to gain a little bit of positive publicity. That goes doubly if they choose to also confirm the new Wonder Woman movie that DC fans have been calling for.

1 Build To Justice League Consciously

Some people may get itchy teeth reading this, but the DCU does need to take more of a conscious leaf out of the MCU playbook, as well as learning from what Zack Snyder's long-term plans were. In other words, we need to know that the Justice League is coming. Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal has dropped the bombshell that Gunn and Safran planned to unveil plans for the Justice League in 2029 and 2031, but the problem remains that there is no sign of the team on an official slate.

James Gunn's bold choice to tell his first Superman story in a world that was already populated with heroes and had its own Justice Gang was a good idea, but it did feel a little like the studio was rather going out of its way to ignore something that fans want. Yes, there is the consideration that proximity to Snyder's Justice League might be something to be avoided, but the Justice League is an Avengers-level brand, and it's something DC fans legitimately want to see.

Uniting a new version of that superhero team, including Aaron Pierre's Green Lantern, Superman, the new Batman, Wonder Woman, ideally Martian Manhunter, and some other iconic characters, is beyond essential. Right now, it still doesn't feel like the DCU has a cohesive plan beyond its existing title for Chapter One, but let's be real, "Gods and Monsters" doesn't mean anything to most of the audience. Saying "this will all build to the Justice League" means an awful lot more.

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