Late Night DC Comics Gossip: James Gunn, Jeremy Latcham And Jim Lee

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Movies, TV, Warner Bros | Tagged: david ellison, gossip, james gunn, jeremy latcham, jim lee, peter safran

Late Night DC Comics Gossip: James Gunn, Jeremy Latcham And Jim Lee

Late Night DC Comics Gossip: James Gunn, Jeremy Latcham, David Ellison, Peter Safran and Jim Lee

Published Mon, 09 Nov 2026 18:57:16 -0600
by Rich Johnston
|
Last updated Mon, 09 Nov 2026 18:59:50 -0600
|
Comments

Article Summary

• Late Night DC Comics Gossip: James Gunn and Peter Safran are out at DC Studios, with Jeremy Latcham reportedly in.
• Sources say DC Comics escaped Skydance buyouts as profits stay strong, with Absolute Batman helping protect jobs.
• Industry chatter claims Jim Lee felt sidelined by Gunn and Safran, fueling talk of side projects and an eventual exit.
• Late Night DC Comics Gossip points to Jim Lee welcoming Jeremy Latcham, with David Ellison poised to reshape DC.

Firstly, the news that James Gunn and Peter Safran were out at DC Studios, and Jeremy Latcham was in, was a massive surprise to the kind of people you would have thought wouldn't have had to read the news on Deadline. Did Skydance co-CEO David Ellison see the rushes of Man Of Tomorrow and decide that enough was enough? Did he decide that what they really needed was a Marvel guy with a decent MCU Phase One and Two track record?

Jeremy Latcham left his job at Endeavour in 2004, with David Masiel to be Masiel's assistant, working alongside Kevin Feige at the newly minted Marvel Studios, back when Marvel Studios was just a tiny office in Santa Monica, and all they did was give notes to other studios on Marvel-based games, TV series and movies, which would be ignored. Both stayed with Maisel throughout the JPMorgan deal that founded the MCU. He recently told Christian podcasts that whether his grandmother would approve of a film became a recognised flag at Marvel Studios. He then helped Kevin Feige take control, then quit for Fox. One of Maisel's two juniors back then runs Marvel now, and the other runs DC.

And what will this mean for DC's comic book side, which is what you're really interested in? Are they still going to be able to publish The Demon?

I went to see Ebenezer tonight at London's Leicester Square, but first sent out a few feelers to percolate through the industry and by the time I was getting a double-decker bus home through the Christmas lights, I was starting to get a better picture. First, I have heard from multiple sources that no one at DC Comics has been offered a voluntary layoff package, even as thousands of other Warner Bros./Skydance employees were ahead of planned layoffs. The reason given to me is that DC Comics is simply outperforming other Warner Bros. departments, is a profit centre for themselves just from the comics, as well as what it delivers to the rest of the company – but also no one can be entirely sure exactly what everyone does at DC, and the risk of losing someone and the exponential ripples it might cause was considered not worth triggering. Not yet, anyway. It is very possible that Absolute Batman saved a lot of jobs at the comics publisher this week, because no one wants to kill that golden batgoose.

As for James Gunn and Peter Safran, I am told that Jim Lee, Publisher, President, and CCO of DC Comics, previously said he's felt stymied or frozen out by them at DC Studios. And that his decision to work publicly on side hustles such as the Comic Shop Talk podcast, outside the DC Comics bubble (and to make $19K by selling one Absolute Batman comic), has been interpreted as creating his own stage and preparing for a potential exit. But now it's all change.

I understand Jim Lee has very much welcomed the news of Jeremy Latcham's appointment. Jeremy's experience has mostly been at Marvel Comics, and that is still Jim Lee's perceived brand, specifically on X-Men, even after founding Image Comics, selling WildStorm to DC Comics and becoming Publisher. President and CCO of DC Comics. Expect Jim Lee to throw Jeremy Latcham and David Ellison a party, buy them flowers, or maybe do them an Absolute Batman sketch cover as a joining bonus.

Okay, it's almost one a.m. here; I'll see if anything is clearer come the morning…

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!