Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-chairmen and chief executive officers of DC Studios, becoming the new stewards for superhero characters including Batman and Superman.
Gunn and Safran will oversee the creative direction of the brand, including film, television and animation, starting November 1, according to a statement from the company Tuesday. They will report to Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive officer David Zaslav.
The appointments mark the end of a search that’s been closely watched across Hollywood. Zaslav has had control of the DC brand since April when a merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery was completed. He’s been implementing his own vision for the entertainment company, which has included cancelling projects and laying off staff, part of the three billion dollars in cost savings he promised as part of the merger.
Both Gunn and Safran have experience with entertainment based on comic books. Safran produced Aquaman, the 2018 film about an ocean-dwelling superhero, which became the highest-grossing movie in the history of the DC universe. Gunn directed Guardians of the Galaxy, a 2014 Walt Disney Co. movie based on Marvel comic characters.
The hiring is a redemption, of sorts, for Gunn. He was fired after the right-leaning website Daily Caller and other conservative commentators published years-old tweets that included jokes about the Holocaust, paedophilia, overweight people and violence against women. He apologized and was rehired by Disney after the cast voiced their support for him.
“DC has among the most entertaining, powerful, and iconic characters in the world and I am thrilled to have the singular and complementary talents of James and Peter joining our world-class team,” Zaslav said in a statement.
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