In a surprise executive shuffle, James Gunn and Peter Safran are stepping down as CEOs and chairmen of DC Studios. They will be replaced by Jeremy Latcham, who will serve as president and chief creative officer.

Gunn and Safran’s exit is unexpected because they were named as part of David Ellison’s business leadership team at the newly renamed Skydance when Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had closed in October. After four years as heads of DC, resetting the studio’s comic book division to mixed commercial results, Gunn and Safran will return full time to creative work.

Gunn and Safran were appointed in 2022 by former Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, with an edict to fashion a true rival to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Under their direction, the duo rebooted the languishing DC Universe with last summer’s “Superman,” a relative success with $618 million globally, and then stumbled with July’s “Supergirl,” a massive bomb with $126 million on a $170 million budget. “Clayface,” a darker, R-rated body-horror thriller, performed modestly this fall with $109 million on a $44 million budget. Meanwhile, they expanded the comic book empire to streaming with its “Peacemaker” and “Lanterns” shows for HBO Max.

DC’s upcoming big-screen endeavors include next summer’s “Superman: Man of Tomorrow,” written and directed by Gunn, and 2028’s “The Batman: Part II,” starring Robert Pattinson. On the television front, there’s the 2027 series “The People v. Gorilla Grodd,” anchored by Skyler Gisondo as his “Superman” character Jimmy Olsen and Jimmy Tatro as Gorilla Grodd.

“Four years ago, we set out to unite DC under one creative vision. In that time, we helped restore ‘Superman’ to the heart of DC, while opening new doors and telling new stories in film and television with ‘Peacemaker,’ ‘Creature Commandos,’ ‘Lanterns’ and ‘Clayface,‘” Gunn and Safran said. “We’re immensely proud of the team that turned that ambition into something real, including the actors, crews and executives we had the opportunity to collaborate with. We’ve shared a creative history with Jeremy going back to Marvel, and we’re eager to see the perspective he brings to DC’s next chapter. We’re excited to return to what drew us to this job in the first place, which is telling the stories we love, including the next chapter of Clark and Lex’s journey in ‘Man of Tomorrow.’”