James Gunn & Peter Safran Are the New Heads of DC Studios, Here's What It Means Going Forward

 

                                                                                                 Image via Adweek

    DC has officially found their sculptors for the new, evolving cinematic universe, now known as the DCU. As of October 25th, 2022, James Gunn, best known for directing Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, will be co-running the comic book property's Film & Television division alongside mega producer, Peter Safran.

    These hires have been in the works for a bit now, as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was looking to key in on figureheads to steer the DC brand into a direction similar to that of Marvel, since his takeover. Gunn, who is mostly known as a creative entity behind the camera with his writing and directing, is also, obviously an extensive comic book junkie having brought "C-List" characters such as the Guardians of the Galaxy to the MCU back in 2014, and then following it up with sequels, theme park rides and a holiday special, Zaslav believes and trusts in his abilities to elevate DC's catalogue of heroes and villains into an interconnected universe. Gunn also has been in the DC family for a bit now, as Gunn went to work on The Suicide Squad and followed it up with an HBO Max series following one of the team's members, Peacemaker. 

    Though Gunn is the more popular and flashier hire, Safran has had tons of success within film & television and his addition within this news provides DC with two intelligent brain trusts rather than the one that Marvel has in Kevin Feige. Safran has worked alongside Gunn on his two DC projects before but also produced other DC fare such as Shazam! and Aquaman, as well as their upcoming sequels both due to be released in 2023.

    

    With whoever Zaslav had picked to be the shepherds of the new interconnected section of the DC Studios, he wanted someone who could be a savvy producer who would have the ability to bring all the heroes and villains together similar to the construction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (such as Safran) but also having the personality and face to present these types of stories, characters and direction moving forward at conventions and earnings calls, similar to that of Kevin Feige, which James Gunn has the ability to do.

    As of now, there are SOME building blocks to go off of. Black Adam has been very successful so far and re-introduced Henry Cavill as Superman. Viola Davis' Amanda Waller, has been sort of a connective tissue throughout all these movies so that she is acting as the "Nick Fury" of DC's cinematic universe. She even appeared in the first season of Peacemaker so it's likely we'll see John Cena's character or maybe even others from The Suicide Squad such as Bloodsport or Ratcatcher moving forward interacting with Jason Momoa's Aquaman or Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.

    This announcement, however, does not affect Todd Phillips' Joker films, with the sequel Joker: Folie a Deux gearing up to shoot with Joaquin Phoenix returning to his Oscar-winning role as the Clown Prince of Gotham being joined this time by Lady Gaga (playing an alternate version of Harley Quinn). This also won't affect the Batman-verse being set up by Matt Reeves. Reeves directed this year's, The Batman starring Robert Pattinson as the titular character and also introduced Paul Dano's The Riddler, Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman and Colin Farrell's Penguin, who is also getting his own HBO Max series diving deeper into his version of the Batman villain.

    I'm very excited to see Gunn and Safran take over these leadership roles at Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios as co-Chairmen and CEOs. What do you guys think? Do you think they'll do a good job as architects of a connected universe redo for the DC property? Let us know in the comments below!