According to Variety, James Gunn and Peter Safran are out as DC Studios co-presidents four years into the job, and former Marvel exec Jeremy Latcham takes over as president starting December 1.
The press release says "stepping down." The headline says "Fired." In Hollywood these are the same sentence with different fonts. Four years at the helm, a $618 million Superman, a Supergirl that made $126 million on a $170 million budget, and a new owner with $111 billion of somebody else's money in the building. The board did the math and decided the vision is broken. The vision was a budget.
And the statement machine ran on both sides, which is the tell. Gunn and Safran are "immensely proud" and "eager" to watch their replacement. Ellison and Kreiz are "grateful for their passion" and have "complete confidence." The fired side sends a thank-you note to the people doing the firing. That is the Friendly Firing, the only termination style in Hollywood where both sides put out a joint statement. Bruce Wayne never had to deal with this.
Then there is the replacement. Latcham left Marvel in 2017. DC's answer to the Marvel problem is to hire a Marvel guy who already knows the playbook. Meanwhile the man who just got booted still gets to direct next summer's Superman sequel. Out of the building, not off the slate. And Deadline points out this all lands the same day Skydance reports earnings, which is a CEO swapping the creative team while the TV is still on.
YOUR TURN: Latcham learns the DC playbook fast, or is he next year's "stepping down" story by Christmas?
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