Just as DC Studios was on a steady path with a careful plan in place, Skydance has wiped the slate clean and created a mess it must untangle.
James Gunn and Peter Safran have been ousted as co-chiefs of DC Studios, despite previously having the backing of Skydance overlord David Ellison.
Ellison pulled a 180 and replaced Gunn and Safran with Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel Studios veteran with just three producing credits in the last eight years, none of them a box-office success.
But reports suggest unease with the autonomy Gunn and Safran retained from the Warner Bros. Discovery days, the box office returns of their films so far, and their focus on lesser-known characters in the DC canon.
Further speculation suggests that Gunn’s storytelling wasn’t wholly appealing to Ellison.
So, Latcham has come in, and by now you would’ve seen his ‘make films for his Grandmother’ mantra plastered all over social media.
It’s hardly a promising take for fans of DC’s incredibly complex canon that allows for equal shades of light and dark.
Social media is now awash with speculation that Gunn’s Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, will undergo reshoots, cut fringe characters, and potentially recast Wonder Woman to bring back Gal Gadot (please no).
Gunn, as has become common, took to social media to quash rumours of any reshoots.
“There are a lot of untrue rumours going around, but one of them is that Skydance has seen Man of Tomorrow and that all sorts of sweeping changes are being made,” Gunn posted on Threads.
“No one from Skydance has even seen the movie – the only people that have are Peter Safran and a very small trusted group of friends and family. So any stories around this narrative are false.”
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It’s understood that Skydance wants to retain David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent – a sensible decision given he’s perfectly suited to the role, as are Rachel Brosnahan and Skyler Gisondo as Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, respectively.
Moreover, it’s suggested that Sykdance also wants Robert Pattinson to continue as Batman, which could be disrupted by his potential Bond casting.
Finally, rumours suggest Skydance wants a Justice League-style movie as soon as possible.
It’s a lot to juggle and raises important questions about the standing of several DC projects from Man of Tomorrow to The Batman: Part II and Lanterns.
At the same time, audiences will have to get used to another course correction with DC properties in cinemas, and Skydance will continue to face speculation and questions about why the Gunn era was culled before it really began.
Why has Skydance done this?
To acquire Warner Bros. and merge it with Paramount, Skydance has incurred an unholy amount of debt.
$80 billion of debt.
That’s a lot of money, and one way Skydance can start to regain ground is by making massive blockbusters.
Which means that, even though Superman was the highest-grossing superhero flick of 2025, $618 million worldwide at the box office isn’t enough moving forward.
It also means the box-office bomb that was Supergirl, which grossed just $126 million worldwide this summer, incurring losses on its $170 million production budget before marketing.
And while the Gunn era has been a success on the small screen, with the likes of Peacemaker, Creature Commandos, and the ratings hit Lanterns, the big screen offerings have yet to truly take off.
Gunn’s always had a great ability to take characters from the comic book back benches and make hits; Peacemaker is a great example.
So did he with Clayface, a delightfully dark body-horror exploration of how a villain reaches that status.
That film cost $40 million and has grossed over $114 million worldwide so far.
It’s a critical success, but its niche status means that after marketing and distribution considerations, Clayface won’t be much of a moneymaker.
Skydance will likely have questioned why the DCU didn’t kick off with solo films of the biggest characters one after another, before landing a big team-up movie.
That formula worked wonders at the beginning of the MCU, when Latcham was directly involved.
A risk-averse approach, maybe – as opposed to launching Supergirl as the second film in your franchise, launching your Green Lantern on the small screen and greenlighting a C-tier Batman villain origin story before making meaningful progress on your own Caped Crusader.
The questions moving forward are whether Latcham can recreate that magic, and how he should do it.
Retaining David Corenswet as ‘Superman’ is a good idea
Retaining Corenswet’s Superman is a good idea for Skydance for several reasons.
For starters, it helps give cinemagoers a sense of continuity from the Gunn era to whatever Latcham will hatch(am).
Second, he’s a very good Superman with a very good Lex Luthor.
Third, it gives Man of Tomorrow a chance to be a box office success, if audiences know this version of Supers isn’t flying down a dead end.
Also, aside from Batman, Superman/Clark Kent is your core DC character, which you ought to build around.
Gunn’s expanding DC Universe has hardly begun, so Skydance and Latcham can use Man of Tomorrow as a jumping-off point and take it in the direction they choose.
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This is the simplest route to success.
Moreover, it is worth retaining Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart/Green Lantern, who is set to return in Man of Tomorrow after being a key part of HBO’s Lanterns, which averaged 19.3 million viewers globally and ranked in the top five of HBO series launches.
Again, this works for continuity, and will help speed things along towards a new big-screen adaptation of Justice League.
Finally, any speculation of Gadot’s return as Wonder Woman needs to be squashed, immediately.
Wonder Woman 1984 was abysmal, and Gadot lacks the star presence, charisma and acting chops to help carry a franchise forward.
It would also be a confusing, retreating step that would further inform audiences that those in charge aren’t confident in their choices.
A new Wonder Woman is expected in Man of Tomorrow, and it looks like Adria Arjona unknown role in the film will be that of the Amazonian warrior.
It’s a perfect match for the role, and Arjona has been fan-cast for a while; retaining her as Wonder Woman would be another good-faith move to entice audiences to return to the cinema for future DC offerings.
The DCU needs a new Batman
Regardless of whether Skydance wants to keep Pattinson’s Batman, if they want a Justice League movie with Corenswet’s Superman involved, they need a new Dark Knight.
Gunn’s handling of DC suggested Matt Reeves’ Batman stories were part of Elseworlds, outside the DCU continuity with Corenswet, etc.
It makes sense: the dark, down-to-earth, gritty realism of The Batman doesn’t exactly feel as if it will sit well with the cosmic, fantastical nature of the wider DCU.
Also, Pattinson is looking increasingly likely to be the next James Bond, so the Batman decision could be taken out of Skydance’s hands anyway.
Something has to give, and as amazing as his Batman is, and as hotly anticipated as Reeves’ The Batman: Part II is, the DCU will need a Bruce Wayne that fits better with the rest of the franchise.
As sad as it is, Pattinson’s journey as Batman may need to end after his second outing in 2028.
Latcham’s challenge is how and when to introduce a DCU Batman, something Gunn struggled with as well.
Wanting a Justice League big-screen event sooner rather than later would lead to two iterations of Batman in cinemas in close proximity.
That is why Skydance probably wants to retain Pattinson, and it also backs up the continuity argument for retaining Corenswet and Pierre.
But shoehorning Pattinson into the wider DCU would be more hassle than it’s worth.
Don’t rush into a Justice League film
Skydance might want to rush to a Justice League film as soon as possible, but that isn’t the best idea.
While that may seem contradictory to what’s been said before, it is a decent course of action.
Ben Fritz of The Wall Street Journal suggested Gunn’s Batman would arrive in 2029, with a Justice League movie following in 2031.
Latcham will know from his Marvel days that a slow build to the big team-up film is necessary.
Iron Man arrived in 2008, and the subsequent films introduced the major characters needed to release Avengers in 2012.
A similar four-year timeline would put a Justice League film in cinemas around the time Fritz suggests.
The ‘original’ Justice League is said to include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.
Superman and Green Lantern are already established in the DCU, with Wonder Woman reportedly on the way.
That leaves two to four more JL members to be introduced cinematically (Skydance will likely focus on big-screen offerings moving forward), depending on whether the DCU decides to go with a new Batman and include Martian Manhunter.
Going with a new Batman requires a new solo movie, and at the least you’d imagine Aquaman and The Flash require a proper set-up.
That means Skydance and Latcham must get busy setting up projects and greenlighting scripts to deliver a nuanced introduction of the Justice League in cinemas.
The Snyderverse showed that rushing things is a mistake; Skydance should avoid it to maximise box-office returns.
Post Man of Tomorrow, a Batman film in the DCU has to be a high priority, and 2029 is a good bet to allow Pattinson’s Cape Crusader time to breathe.
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There is room for another major DC character outing between Man of Tomorrow and a new Batman, where a Wonder Woman, The Flash or Aquaman film could help introduce a number of key characters.
However, that 2029 flick could be the big box-office hit Skydance is after, allow for a new Batman introduction, and save time before a proper Justice League film.
A Trinity film in 2029 would be the perfect Man of Tomorrow follow-up.
Trinity is the comic book series which focuses on Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, the three biggest DC characters at Skydance’s disposal.
That’s enough to be a massive box-office smash and establish a new Batman at the same time.
Time could then be spent introducing the remaining Justice League members with solo films in 2030, before a wider team-up film a year later.
Of course, these are all theories and hypotheticals.
In time, the Skydance/Latcham plan for DC Studios will reveal itself.
Expect big-screen, would-be blockbuster projects being greenlit to jump-start what Skydance saw as a slowly building DCU.
Whether they’ll make the right choices and the best films, even with the best intentions, remains to be seen.
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