James Gunn posted to Threads saying "No one from Skydance has even seen" Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, per The Hollywood Reporter. He and Peter Safran step down as DC Studios co-CEOs on December 1.
The post is a masterclass in the departed-exec voice: calm, specific, anchored on the phrase "a very small trusted group of friends and family." Translation: the only people who saw the movie are the man who is leaving and his friends. The new owners of the film have not seen the film. The most expensive screening room in Hollywood is running a private showing with an audience of one, and the guest list is on a social app.
This is what happens to a sequel the day its creator walks out. The rumor mill never needs a script change; it needs a departure, and the departure needs a statement, and a co-CEO who is being shown the door cannot send a press release but can send a thread. "So any stories around this narrative are false" is the closest a fan can get to a cease and desist.
The cast is playing the mystery right back. Skyler Gisondo says there is "a lot I still don't know," which is the correct amount of information for an actor to have about a movie his studio has never viewed. The film now exists in quantum limbo: it is and is not the same picture until someone at Skydance opens the file.
YOUR TURN: If the new owners have never seen the movie they own, is it in development or in arbitration?
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