Hollywood's superhero executive suite just cracked wide open. DC Studios co-chairmen James Gunn and Peter Safran will step down from their executive posts on December 1, clearing the way for former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham to take charge as president and chief creative officer. The leadership swap ends a four-year corporate tenure that began in 2022 when Warner Bros. Discovery leadership brought the pair in to build a rival to Marvel. Latcham—whose track record includes producing heavyweight hits like Iron Man, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy—will now take full command of DC's theatrical, television, and animation pipeline.
The corporate grind took its toll. Running a multi-billion-dollar comic book stable requires navigating boardroom politics, balancing corporate ledgers, and refereeing executive battles—work that clashed violently with the instincts of an active director. Gunn addressed the burnout directly in an online post, admitting the role pushed him to his limits while thanking Safran for absorbing the brunt of the corporate machine. "Only the closest people to me have known over the past four years is my time at DC Studios has been trying, to say the least," Gunn wrote. He pointed directly to the personal strain on his marriage with his wife Jenn, noting that his ADHD hyperfocus made it agonizing to split attention between creative passions and the relentless administrative demands of running a studio.
David Zaslav originally hired Gunn and Safran to impose order on a chaotic stable of DC properties. They moved fast. The duo overhauled the DC Universe, greenlighting and steering three feature films—Superman, Supergirl, and Clayface—while rolling out three live-action television series: The Penguin, Lanterns, and the second season of Peacemaker. They drafted a ten-year architectural blueprint for the franchise. Yet steering a corporate conglomerate while writing and directing on set proved an untenable balance.
Gunn is not leaving the sandbox. He is simply ditching the desk job. The filmmaker is already deep into production directing Man of Tomorrow, the theatrical sequel to his Superman reboot, which arrives in cinemas this summer. Gunn confirmed he has also signed on to write another unannounced DC project, keeping his creative footprint intact without the daily operational drag of running the studio.
Enter Jeremy Latcham. He brings seasoned studio discipline back to the comic book arena after leaving Marvel in 2017 to launch his independent banner, Latcham Pictures, where he backed Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves and Bad Times at the El Royale. In his new role, Latcham will manage DC's talent roster, creative output, and long-range strategy, reporting directly to Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein. The executive suite has changed hands—leaving Gunn with a camera and Latcham with the keys to the kingdom.