James Gunn’s DC Studios Exit Came at the Worst Time

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    Image via Warner Bros. Pictures</figure>

Jeremy Latcham’s hiring is far from the first time that Warner Bros. has hired a creative best known for working at Marvel Studios. Back in 2017, Joss Whedon was hired to complete principal photography on Justice League after Zack Snyder departed the project following the loss of his daughter, Autumn. The result was a disaster; Snyder’s more operatic filmmaking style clashed with Whedon’s zippy, quippy approach to writing superheroes. Add in accusations of “gross misconduct” by star Ray Fisher, and Whedon’s time on Justice League ended rather poorly. It also meant that DC’s bid to reclaim some of the Marvel magic was dead in the water.

Though it’s never been said out loud, some fans have speculated that a large part of the reason Gunn was chosen as DC Studios’ CEO, beyond his work on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, is his previous work on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. However, Gunn proved that he could make DC Studios its own thing by delivering character-driven stories, whether it’s the blood-soaked chaos of Creature Commandos or the sci-fi spectacle of Superman. Latcham needs to keep that in mind, rather than chasing Marvel Studios’ success.

Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.

You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.

• The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
  reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
• You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
  real entry requirement here.
• The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
  usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
• When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.

You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.

• This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
  wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
• You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
  not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
• The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
  to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
• You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.

You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.

• Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
  villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
• You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
  which is far less lonely than being the only one.
• The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
  honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
• The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.

You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.

• The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
  patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
• You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
  not to mention.
• This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
  people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
• You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.

The Future of DC Studios is Uncertain

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via HBO

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via HBO Max

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via HBO

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via HBO Max

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via HBO

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via HBO Max

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via HBO

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Image via HBO Max

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s departures come as DC Studios prepares to release its biggest movie yet, Man of Tomorrow. Written and directed by Gunn, Man of Tomorrow will feature Clark Kent (David Corenswet) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) joining forces to battle the malevolent artificial intelligence, Brainiac (Lars Eidinger). It’s also shaping up to be the massive event movie fans have been waiting for, with the cast now including Milly Alcock as Supergirl, Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, and even Xolo Maridueña as Blue Beetle. Next are Season 2 of Creature Commandos and The People vs. Gorilla Grodd, with future projects stillup in the air.

It raises the question: What direction will DC Studios take next? Both Gunn and Safran are shifting back into creative roles, with Gunn saying that he’s written another movie post-Man of Tomorrow:

“That’s not to say Peter and I are immediately done with DC or superheroes. We have Man of Tomorrow out this summer. And we’ve just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that. And, of course, the characters we’ve set up will live on.”

“That’s not to say Peter and I are immediately done with DC or superheroes. We have Man of Tomorrow out this summer. And we’ve just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that. And, of course, the characters we’ve set up will live on.”

The opening credits for Superman mentioned that it was ushering in “a new era of Gods and Monsters,” hinting at James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plans for the DC Universe. Time will tell if those plans shake out under Jeremy Latcham’s leadership.

Man of Tomorrow premieres in theaters on July 9, 2027.

Man of Tomorrow

• <

  David Corenswet

  Superman

• <

  Nicholas Hoult

  Lex Luthor

• <

  Rachel Brosnahan

  Lois Lane

• <

  Lars Eidinger

  Brainiac