Director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran will likely be co-chairs and co-CEOs of Warner Bros.’ new DC Studios, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. DC Studios is a brand new Warner Bros. division changing DC Films, and can oversee all DC Universe initiatives inside movie, TV, and animation.

New Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been looking out for a counterpart to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for fairly a while, courting individuals from varied backgrounds within the leisure world.

Gunn beforehand had a better relationship with Marvel, making the primary two Guardians of the Galaxy films earlier than leaping ship to DC for 2021’s The Suicide Squad — after being fired from the third Guardians film by Marvel. (He’s again on that undertaking, nonetheless.) Tuesday’s information additionally occurred to return hours after the trailer dropped for Gunn’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. For DC, Gunn additionally directed the celebrated HBO Max present Peacemaker, one in every of Polygon’s favourite reveals of 2022.

While not as recognizable a reputation as Gunn, Safran is a really skilled producer who has labored with Warner Bros. many occasions within the final a number of years. Some of Safran’s earliest producing credit embrace his work with horror director and DC veteran James Wan. Safran’s producing work with Wan’s Conjuring Universe additionally set him up for the sort of franchise administration that will likely be key to his success in his new function at DC. Since then, Safran has moved into the DC Universe as a complete, together with each Shazam! films and Gunn’s DC initiatives.

This is the newest hierarchy shift within the DC Universe, following govt Walter Hamada’s current exit and years of turmoil previous Warner Bros. takeover (and following it, together with the notorious cancellation of Batgirl).