James Gunn has addressed his exit from DC Studios, describing his four years as co-head of the comic book operation as a period of extraordinary creative highs that also wore on him personally and left him eager to return to filmmaking full time.
The departure followed a surprise move on Monday, when Skydance replaced Gunn and Peter Safran with Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham as president and chief creative officer of DC Studios. The change closes out a four-year tenure in which the pair rebooted the studio’s superhero universe, launching the feature films “Superman,” “Supergirl” and “Clayface” along with the HBO series “Lanterns.”
Gunn, a frequent presence on social media who regularly talks with fans on X and Threads, posted a lengthy statement after word of the shakeup. In it he thanked Safran and DC’s audience while acknowledging the difficulty of the role.
“What 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. “I dislike the at-times corporate nature of the job (thanks to Peter for taking the brunt of that). I’m always a very hard worker, but as a filmmaker I would at least get to take short breaks to unwind, and I’ve stolen even that time from both myself and my loved ones over the past four years.”
He also noted that his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder made splitting his focus especially hard. “The thing my ADHD hyperfocus has had the most difficulty with has been dividing my time between projects I’m incredibly passionate about and the ones I’m not so much and all the things I have to do as a studio head,” he wrote.
In the statement, Gunn traced his connection to the material back to childhood in Manchester, Missouri, where he wrote and drew his own comics mixing DC characters with creations of his own. Having full access to those characters, he said, was a dream come true, and he recalled being unsure whether he wanted the job when it was offered but deciding he could not pass up the opportunity. “I’m glad I took the job,” he wrote.
He listed the release of “Superman” and “Clayface,” the making of “Peacemaker,” reading the scripts for “The People Vs” and the entire process behind “Man of Tomorrow” among the high points, calling the latter the best filmmaking experience of his life. The greatest reward, he said, was the people: the DC Studios staff, the studio’s collaborators, casts and crews, and what he called the “boisterous and hilarious fans.”
Gunn singled out Safran as “the smartest and most competent person I know,” describing him as the best partner anyone could ask for and, beyond that, a genuinely good friend. He also addressed his wife directly, writing, “Jenn, I love you and I’m sorry and you don’t need to feel guilty for being the happiest of all people that I’m no longer doing this job.”
Even so, he said he will miss the people around him and the role of co-caretaker for DC’s characters, while feeling “incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”
The exit does not end his involvement with DC or superheroes. Gunn noted that “Man of Tomorrow” is scheduled for a summer release, and that he and Safran have already begun work on another DC project that he is writing, with the studio to see where it goes from there. The characters they established, he added, will live on.
“Thank you so very, very much for embracing the characters and stories we’ve put on screen,” he wrote, signing off with “Love and gratitude.”