David Ellison Wants the Justice League Back on the Big Screen Fast as Jeremy Latcham Takes the Reins at DC Studios

Warner Bros. has spent years chasing a big-screen Justice League that really lands with audiences. Fans keep asking when the DC Universe will finally assemble its biggest team. Now a fresh power shift is putting that question front and center again.

The change arrived suddenly this week. On Nov. 9, DC Studios announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran were stepping down as co-CEOs and chairmen, and that Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham would take over as president and chief creative officer. The handover takes effect on Dec. 1, and Latcham will report to Skydance CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.

According to insiders cited by TheWrap, Ellison wants Latcham to get the Justice League back in theaters as soon as possible. The report says Latcham is expected to prioritize films for Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash and other heavyweight characters in the years ahead. It describes a shift toward big names rather than deep cuts, with lesser-known heroes taking a back seat.

That direction stands in contrast with the slate the previous leaders had been building. No Justice League movie had been announced, dated or formally put into development, and Safran sidestepped the question when he was asked about it at a press stop in Brazil. The same coverage noted that the DC movie slate thins out quickly after ‘Man of Tomorrow’.

Latcham spent 13 years at Marvel Studios, where he rose to senior vice president of production and development. His credits include ‘Iron Man’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘The Avengers’. He was also a producer on ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’, which he developed after signing a first-look deal with eOne.

In his new role, he will lead DC’s film, television and animation slate, overseeing the creative pipeline along with production, talent and strategy. He is one of Kevin Feige’s key lieutenants from the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The shake-up came only 33 days after Skydance took control of DC Studios through the Warner Bros. acquisition. That deal closed on Oct. 6, and Gunn and Safran had initially been expected to stay on after Ellison reportedly asked them to keep running the studio. One insider told TheWrap that Ellison had been quietly talking to Latcham for more than a month before the merger closed.

Ellison and Kreiz praised the outgoing pair, saying they launched a new era for the studio and guided it through a period of real transformation. Ellison also named ‘Superman’, ‘Lanterns’ and ‘Creature Commandos’ among the projects they delivered. Two insiders in the report disputed part of the official account of the timing, saying the pair were told on a Friday.

Gunn and Safran launched their vision for the DC Universe only 16 months ago with ‘Superman’, followed by a series of well-received streaming shows and 2 theatrical follow-ups that failed to match its box office success. ‘Clayface’ arrived just as the merger with Paramount was finalized, and ‘Supergirl’ came earlier in the year. A long pipeline of projects already in production means the outgoing leaders’ fingerprints will remain on the studio for a while.

Latcham, working alongside Skydance film chiefs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, will now have to forge a new creative direction. The Justice League push is the clearest early signal of what that direction may be, and it would mark a sharp turn toward the franchise’s best-known names.

The first thing to watch is whether the upcoming slate gets reshuffled to make room for a team-up. Fans have been asking about a Justice League movie ever since the DC Universe reboot was announced, and the new leadership may be eager to answer. Until the studio says more, the report remains based on insider claims rather than an official announcement.

With a fresh executive, a new owner and a very old team of heroes, the next chapter at DC could look very different from the last one.

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