What THR’s New Reporting Means for Grace Randolph’s Gunn Takedown

The Full Story

On her Nov. 9 Beyond the Trailer livestream, Randolph called the news one of the biggest stories “in the history of Hollywood,” argued that Gunn was “never the right hire,” and said the polite “stepping down” language was, in her view, “a polite way of saying asked to leave.” She also restated praise for his 2025 Superman as the best Superman movie she had seen, and she listed franchise strategy among the things she believes he got wrong. PCP documented that livestream, and the longer Gunn-Randolph feud, in a separate article.

Skydance’s own announcement used softer language. It said Gunn and Safran would “step away from their leadership roles” after four years and “return full time to their creative work,” with Latcham starting as president and chief creative officer on Dec. 1, 2026. Gunn, in a personal statement posted to Instagram and Threads and quoted by THR, said he would miss being “the co-caretaker of these great characters,” but was “incredibly relieved and excited to get back to pure filmmaking.”

THR’s follow-up reporting, published later on Nov. 9, is the first detailed sourced account of what happened inside the company. It should be read as reporting from sources, not as a signed corporate confession. It is also more specific than the official handoff language.

They Apparently Thought They Were Staying

Kit and Couch write that Gunn and Safran “were feeling pretty secure under the new Skydance regime” after surviving a merger that cost Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy their jobs. Gunn had wrapped production on Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel dated for July 2027, and sources told THR he was already writing a third film, as part of a plan to make a Superman trilogy — and maybe, eventually, a Justice League team-up.

Then, THR reports, Ellison and Kreiz arrived at the pair’s offices on the Warner Bros. lot on Friday, Nov. 6. According to the paper’s sources, the DC heads were told that despite previous assurances they would be part of the new studio, the co-CEOs had a change of plans, “and now … they were out.” THR’s headline calls the episode an “ouster.” The official announcement does not.

That Nov. 6 visit should not be confused with an earlier trip that has circulated in other coverage. In October, at the Clayface premiere, Gunn and Safran told THR that Ellison had already been briefed on their longer-range DC plans and had asked them to continue. “David knows everything,” Gunn said. Safran said they “really took him into the tent and talked about where we see it going over the next number of years,” and that Ellison “seems to be embracing that idea.” Those comments help explain why the November change landed as a shock. They are not, however, part of the Nov. 9 ouster story itself.

Separately, coverage citing Bloomberg has reported that Ellison visited the Atlanta set of Man of Tomorrow earlier in 2026 and heard a decade-long plan for the DC Universe. PCP has not independently reviewed that Bloomberg article. The Nov. 9 THR story does not itself describe a supportive set visit, and it does not use a “ten-year plan” figure.

A Different Reporting Line, Not Just New Names

The most understated part of the new reporting may be the org chart. THR says that before the Skydance acquisition, Gunn and Safran reported directly to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, and that their contracts required the same kind of direct line after a change of control — in this case, to Ellison. In the new setup, Latcham reports to Goldberg and Greenstein. Skydance’s announcement confirms that reporting line.

THR’s sources describe real tension around that change. The paper says Gunn and Safran “were not about to get layered in the reporting structure,” that they were accustomed to having “the final word on movies, TV shows, and animation,” and that they were “not forthcoming or were slow in sharing plans, slate details and footage with the Skydance movie heads.” Another source told THR that Ellison never wanted DC reporting directly to him in the first place.

PCP analysis: a tighter budget process, more centralized production management, or an extra layer of executive review would be reasonable inferences from this new structure. They are not confirmed policy changes. The structure itself is confirmed. What it tells us about Skydance’s priorities is clearer than the public statements about creative direction.

The Box Office Record Is Mixed, Not a Wipeout

Randolph’s livestream treated the leadership change as validation of a longer critique of Gunn as a studio chief, including franchise strategy. A fair test of that commercial argument is the actual theatrical record — and THR, the studio, and box-office trackers do not describe a single outcome.

THR says the movies released “were not great for business” in the new regime’s eyes, and that Supergirl was “just a disaster.” Superman, the paper says, grossed $618 million worldwide and was profitable, but still “did not net out, or have the kind of pop culture impact, in the way that kind of movie should have,” according to that same thinking. Skydance’s announcement cites the same $618 million-plus figure.

Clayface is the movie that most clearly cuts against a blanket-failure narrative. THR describes Gunn and Safran “basking in the modest success” of the Oct. 21 horror film, which “passed $100 million globally on a $44 million budget,” with talk of more slimmed-down, spooky DC movies. Skydance’s announcement calls the film “critically acclaimed” and says it has grossed “more than $109 million worldwide and counting.” Box Office Mojo and The Numbers both list a worldwide total of about $109.1 million. Budget figures vary: THR uses $44 million; The Numbers lists $40 million.

Supergirl is the other pole. Box Office Mojo puts its worldwide gross at about $126.5 million. The Numbers lists a $170 million production budget; some later estimates have run as high as $186 million. Those are production budgets, not the full cost of marketing and distribution, and worldwide gross is not the same as studio profit. Even with that caveat, a roughly $40 million-to-$44 million movie at about $109 million worldwide is a different commercial proposition from a $170 million movie at about $126 million. Grouping them only because neither reached blockbuster territory flattens that distinction.

Gunn Is Not Automatically Finished With DC

The official announcement is more specific about ongoing credits than the Nov. 9 THR feature, which focuses on the ouster itself and says it is “unclear if Gunn will get the chance to finish any of his vision for Superman, let alone the DC slate” announced in 2022.

A new executive can still change a slate. Announcing a transition is not the same as ending Gunn’s entire relationship with DC, and his own statement said he was not immediately walking away from the work already underway. PCP has the four-slide text of that statement in a carousel on the DC Studios story.

Latcham’s Résumé Is More Specific Than a Cameo

THR’s most useful Latcham reporting is the relationship with Gunn. The paper says Latcham was “instrumental in Gunn’s rise,” advocating for him to be hired on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It also traces the current shuffle to an early-fall outreach from Greenstein, who had worked with Latcham around Iron Man and later on Spider-Man: Homecoming.

The official Skydance biography fills in the title and credits. Latcham joined Marvel Studios in 2004 and rose to senior vice president of production and development, working closely with Kevin Feige. The studio lists him as associate producer on Iron Man, co-producer on Iron Man 2, and executive producer on The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Spider-Man: Homecoming. That does not prove he will succeed as DC’s leader. It does establish that he was a senior production executive during Marvel’s rise, not simply someone who happened to be in the building.

Randolph’s Claims, Next to the New Reporting

The table below compares the core arguments from Randolph’s Nov. 9 livestream — as documented in PCP’s earlier story — with what the new reporting actually adds. The third column is PCP’s updated read, not a verdict on who “won.”

PCP Analysis: Two Ways This Could Go

The following is analysis, not a confirmed account of Skydance’s intent.

Our leading read is that this was a corporate restructuring with several overlapping causes: a new owner installing its own leadership structure; uneven theatrical results, especially Supergirl; a job in which Gunn was simultaneously a studio chief, writer, director and producer, which his own statement suggests had become exhausting; and an interest in someone steeped in Marvel’s production machine. None of that requires assuming that Gunn was incompetent, or that every project he approved was a mistake.

The question THR leaves unanswered is whether Skydance is mainly changing how DC is managed, or changing the creative direction itself.

• Management restructuring. Latcham takes over budgets, planning, approvals and franchise coordination, while much of Gunn’s existing creative direction remains. Less disruptive.
• Creative restructuring. The development slate is reordered, major creative teams are replaced, and the universe’s direction changes. More disruptive.

A combination is possible. We would be cautious about assuming the company intends to abandon the existing DCU. Doing so would put at risk assets it has already financed, including the successful elements of Superman. If Latcham preserves most of the productions, casting and continuity while changing financial oversight, that will support the management-restructuring read. If he cancels large parts of the slate or changes the universe’s direction, that will support Randolph’s broader interpretation.

For now, THR strengthens her executive-management criticism considerably more than it validates a sweep of her creative and commercial criticisms. Grace was on firmer ground questioning whether Gunn should have been running the entire studio than she was in treating the whole slate as a simple failure.