‘Superman’ Director James Gunn Steps Down as Co-Lead of DC Studios

Gunn said he was grateful he took this "unique opportunity," but admitted the corporate demands of leading a studio were "trying"

Superman filmmaker James Gunn is stepping down as co-head of DC Studios after four years.

As Variety reports, Gunn and his co-CEO and chairman, Peter Safran, will both leave their posts at DC Studios. They will be replaced by Jeremy Latcham, who spent years working at rival Marvel Studios before starting his own production company in 2017. 

In a statement shared on Instagram, Gunn recalled his childhood in Manchester, Missouri, where he would draw his own comics “with a mix of DC Comics characters and my own characters.” He continued, “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.”

Gunn and Safran were tapped to lead DC Studios in 2022. At the time, DC — despite having the likes of Superman, Batman, Aquaman, and the Green Lantern in their IP locker — was struggling to keep pace with Marvel, which was one of the most dominant forces in Hollywood. Gunn was a big part of Marvel’s success, too, thanks to his helming of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. 

During their tenure at DC, Gunn and Safran enjoyed some success, most prominently with Gunn’s own Superman, which garnered strong reviews and a $618 million global box office. This year, the horror flick Clayface enjoyed solid box office success on a small budget, though the Superman spin-off, Supergirl was unable to make back its $170 million budget. (It’s worth noting, too, that some of these struggles may not have been DC Studios specific, as superhero movies in general have become less of a box office certainty since their late 2010s/early 2020s peak.) 

Along with writing and directing Superman, Gunn created the animated series, Peacemaker, centered around the titular Suicide Squad character played by John Cena. He also directed the upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, set to arrive next year. In his statement, Gunn said making Man of Tomorrow had so far been “the best filmmaking experience of my life.” 

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Gunn praised the “talented and wonderful people” he worked with during his DC tenure, from film casts and crews, to Safran, whom he called “the smartest and most competent person I know.” But Gunn also acknowledged that running DC Studios had often been “trying,” as he juggled creative projects with the demands of a corporate job. “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 ten that time from both myself and my loved ones over the past four years,” he said.

To that end, Gunn said he was “incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.” And, he noted, he wan’t “immediately done” with DC either. Along with Man of Tomorrow, he said he and Safran had “just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that.” The director declined to provide any details.