James Gunn's DC replacement is the Marvel producer who helped hire him for Guardians

The man replacing James Gunn at DC Studios is part of the reason James Gunn runs franchises at all. Jeremy Latcham, named president and chief creative officer effective December 1, spent 13 years inside Marvel Studios as Kevin Feige's lieutenant — and, per THR, advocated for hiring Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy back when that meant betting a franchise on the Troma guy with a talking raccoon.

Both sides acknowledge the history. Peter Safran's exit statement notes a "creative history with Jeremy going back to Marvel"; David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz call Latcham "a longtime creative partner to both". THR adds the detail that undercuts the warmth: when the news broke, Latcham and Gunn had not yet spoken about the transition.

The résumé between Guardians and now

Latcham's Marvel run is the founding-era résumé: associate producer on Iron Man, executive producer on The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Age of Ultron, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. He left in 2017 for his own shop, where the biggest swing was Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — a well-liked movie that grossed $208 million worldwide against a reported $150 million budget.

That filmography is the context for THR's sources calling him a "down the middle shooter." He has seen the inside of more billion-dollar productions than almost anyone alive, always one seat away from the final call. DC is the first time the call is his — made on behalf of owners who already know what they want to hear.

How the chair changed shape on the way down

The mechanics of the firing, as THR reconstructs them, say as much about the new DC as the hire does. On Friday, November 6, Ellison and Kreiz walked into Gunn and Safran's offices on the Warner Bros. lot and told them plans had changed — assurances from the merger notwithstanding. The underlying fight was structural: Gunn and Safran's contracts gave them final word on DC film and TV, reporting straight to the CEO, and THR's sources say they were slow to share slate plans and footage with Skydance's film chiefs, who are consolidating all production under themselves.

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Latcham inherits none of that power. He reports not to Ellison but to motion-picture co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, as a president rather than a co-CEO.

Gunn ran DC as a co-CEO answering only to the top. His replacement is a president reporting to two co-chairs. The job got demoted along with the man.

That's the full shape of the irony. Fourteen years ago, Latcham's bet on an unmanageable original voice gave Marvel its weirdest hit and Gunn his career. The system rewarded him for it exactly once — and has now hired him on the explicit understanding that he'll never do it again.

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