James Gunn and Peter Safran are being replaced as the leaders of DC Studios, the film and television unit they took over in 2022. A former Marvel executive will take Gunn's place at the top of the division. Gunn and Safran will remain involved with DC, producing across a range of projects, and Gunn said the two are still working on Man of Tomorrow, the followup to Superman.
In a post on Instagram, Gunn described his tenure at DC Studios as trying, to say the least, and said he dislikes the corporate side of the job at times, crediting Safran with absorbing most of that burden. He also wrote that he and Safran have just been engaged on another DC project that he is writing.
The leadership change comes after the megamerger between Paramount and Warner Bros. closed, producing the combined Skydance company led by CEO David Ellison. The incoming DC Studios head starts on December 1st and will report to Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, the co-chairs of Skydance Motion Picture Group. The source article did not name the incoming executive beyond identifying the person as a former Marvel exec.
The shakeup puts a new leader over one of the most valuable character libraries in entertainment at a moment when the studio's corporate parent has just been reshaped by the Paramount-Warner Bros. combination. For US audiences, the transition covers the studio behind the Superman films and the broader slate of DC movies and series, meaning the change in leadership affects the pipeline of DC releases heading to theaters and streaming.
Gunn's public comments offer a rare window into how he viewed the executive role, separating the creative work he says he is continuing from the corporate duties he says he disliked. His statement that he is writing another DC project indicates he intends to stay in the DC fold as a writer while stepping back from running the studio. The article did not specify which project that is or when it might be released.
The appointment of a former Marvel executive to lead DC Studios marks a crossover between the two largest comic book film operations. The source article did not detail the incoming executive's prior role at Marvel or any specific plans for DC's slate. It also did not say whether Safran's departure from the leadership post follows the same timeline as Gunn's.
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