A day after James Gunn and Peter Safran's exit as co-heads of DC Studios, the future of their superhero universe is coming into focus, and much of it may not survive. Skydance is preparing to scrap a large share of the duo's planned DC slate, according to reporting from Puck's Matthew Belloni and The Hollywood Reporter, as summarized by The Playlist.
A few projects are expected to be spared: Gunn's Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, Matt Reeves' The Batman: Part II, which is currently shooting, and the already-filmed HBO series Gorilla Grodd. The reports also describe executive power struggles and box office disappointments behind the shake-up.
A new boss with a different playbook
Gunn and Safran are being replaced by Jeremy Latcham, a longtime Marvel Studios producer. In past interviews highlighted by Variety, Latcham said that while making the early Marvel films he would ask whether his grandmother would like a scene, a test that became a guiding light for whether a movie would work for regular audiences outside Hollywood. Fans have read those comments as a sign the post-Gunn era will favor four-quadrant crowd-pleasers over edgier material.
The uncertainty reaches DC's TV side, too. Speaking Monday at an awards event for Lanterns, co-showrunner Chris Mundy told The Playlist the team "thought everything had settled" after the merger, calling a second season's prospects "a coin flip."
Cup of Soul reported Monday that Gunn is staying on Man of Tomorrow despite leaving the studio. What replaces the rest of the DC slate, and which characters and actors carry forward, has not been announced.
