James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as co-CEOs of DC Studios on December 1, four years after they took over, and Marvel veteran Jeremy Latcham is taking their chairs. The news landed Monday, Gunn posted a long goodbye that opened with “Oh, boy. What a four years,” and the James Gunn DC memes started before most people reached the second paragraph.
To be clear, Gunn is not hanging up the cape. Man of Tomorrow still opens July 9, 2027, and he says he has “just engaged on another DC project” he is writing. Latcham joined Marvel in 2004 and worked with Gunn on the first Guardians of the Galaxy, according to EW’s story on James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios exit, which arrives as David Ellison’s Skydance settles in as the new owner of Warner Bros.
Is Anyone Taking This Well?
The calmest corner of the internet treated it like a trade deadline. @JamesPrescott77 wrote out an actual positives and negatives list before landing on a Rock “LET’S GO,” which is more emotional maturity than I showed when my favorite pizza place changed owners. Another account simply thanked Gunn and Safran for the Superman Monkey GIF, which, honestly fair, is a legacy.
Did DC Just Reboot the Rebooters?
Then came the reboot jokes, because DC fans have waited years to aim them at the people who promised to end the reboots. @goodmanw summed up the timeline better than any trade paper: the entire Gunn era fit between The Batman and The Batman Part II.
Gunn and Safran leading the DCU from 2023 to 2026 now reads like a date range on a museum plaque, and the Anchorman crowd is laughing about it. Someone in the replies also had to break the news, gently, that no, they are not bringing back Zack Snyder.
How Bad Is the James Gunn Reaction Getting?
Not everyone was joking. Plenty of fans were just sad, and @griffschiller put it in terms anyone who has ridden the DC roller coaster can feel: fifteen years, and back to square one. I get it. I have restarted the same diet so many times that my body no longer takes the announcements seriously.
The Supergirl fans noticed their movie got no shout-out in the statement, and the Snyder loyalists showed up right on schedule to say they told everyone so.
The Fans Who Went Straight for the Jugular
The last tier is where it gets mean, and also where it gets funniest. One fan blamed the choice of Batman director, while another argued that a slate built on Clayface, Creature Commandos and Gorilla Grodd was basically a resignation letter with a release schedule.
The deepest cut came from a longtime critic who will apparently miss arguing over what counts as canon, and the final word went to a poster who found a CBN News interview with Latcham and declared it the future of DC movies.
Underneath all of it, DC fans are just tired of starting over, and I respect anyone who keeps buying the ticket anyway. So be honest with yourself: is a Marvel veteran running DC the fix, or the most DC thing that could possibly happen?
Diane Morgan VisionQuest Memes Turned Marvel Into a Cunk Documentary is proof that Marvel people can laugh at Marvel, which Latcham might want on his reading list. The Superman Monkey loyalists will feel at home in 13 Good Deeds Superman vs. Bad Deeds Lex Luthor Memes, and 45 Marvel Memes That Are Perfectly Balanced is the closest thing to a cinematic universe that stays put.
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