Zack Snyder’s most devoted fans revived their “Restore the Snyderverse” campaign within hours of Monday’s announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran are leaving the top jobs at DC Studios. Skydance, which now owns Warner Bros., installed former Marvel executive Jeremy Latcham as president and chief creative officer. Gunn and Safran step down on December 1. The exit surprised the industry. Both men had been named to David Ellison’s leadership team when the Paramount-led takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closed in October.
Snyder loyalists seized the moment. Some supporters celebrated the leadership change, while other fans called the departures forced. The push follows a familiar pattern. Similar hashtag drives surfaced when Gunn and Safran were hired in 2022, and fans of the director won an earlier fight when his four-hour “Justice League” cut reached HBO Max.
The path back for Snyder looks narrow. Gunn himself said in 2022 that Snyder had expressed no interest in returning and seemed content with his current work. After the release of “Superman,” Snyder called Gunn a great steward of that world. Latcham also comes from Gunn’s own circle. He worked with Gunn on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films at Marvel, which points toward continuity rather than a reset.
Gunn is not leaving DC entirely. He remains attached to next year’s “Man of Tomorrow,” which he wrote and directed, and he is still producing “Batman: Part II” and working on a secret DC project. In a statement, he described the job’s toll bluntly, saying he disliked the corporate side of it and thanked Safran for absorbing most of that burden. He said his time there “has been trying, to say the least.”
The commercial record gave Skydance an opening. “Superman” grossed $618 million worldwide, but “Supergirl” collected only $126.4 million this past summer. Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz praised the pair for resetting the studio’s foundation and building a slate they are proud of. Latcham called DC’s characters among the most iconic in American popular culture. Gunn and Safran also said they would return full time to creative work. Skydance said it expects a smooth handover, which leaves little room for a Snyder revival in the near term.
