Gunn and Safran to stay leading DC as Skydance takes shape
James Gunn and Peter Safran will stay in charge of DC Studios under the new Skydance ownership. David Ellison personally asked the pair to remain and "keep doing what you're doing," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The request came in an in-person meeting on Thursday, Oct. 1. That sit-down, held the day before the new company was unveiled, was described as positive.
Ellison unveiled Skydance as the name for the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. media organisation on Friday morning, Oct. 2. The announcement video closed with eight brand logos ringing the Skydance name. The Paramount mountain, the Warner Bros. shield and the DC bullet sat in the top tier.
The decision gives DC continuity while other film leadership changes. Current Warner Bros. film chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca are being shown the door as part of the combination. Current Paramount film heads Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg are expected to oversee both film studios after the deal.
That outcome will sting in one office. Abdy and De Luca had met with Ellison months ago and had been led to believe they would remain after a merger, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Gunn and Safran run DC Studios, the unit that controls films, television and animation based on DC comics characters. They were named to the jobs on Oct. 25, 2022, according to Reuters. At Warner Bros. Discovery they reported directly to chief executive David Zaslav.
Ellison already knows their slate up close. He visited the Atlanta set of Man of Tomorrow, the big-budget Superman sequel, over the summer. That film opens in July 2027. Before that comes Clayface, a DC horror thriller slated for Oct. 23.
The publishing side has momentum too. In the last two years DC Comics overtook Marvel Comics in sales and market share for the first time in decades. The turnaround was driven by the Absolute Universe imprint and rebuilt relationships with creators.
For fans, this means familiar faces stay on the next run of releases. Gunn and Safran are secure for the foreseeable future while the wider studio structure is still being put together.
