UPDATE, September 10: The big picture on the 2027 clock: David Ellison is putting together an epic DC dream team — and Gunn blew his shot at being on it.
UPDATE, September 9: Same clock, different exec: insiders say HBO Max could be gone and Casey Bloys out after the merger, with Bloys’ HBO deal also running out in 2027.
UPDATE, September 9: Jeff Sneider has now walked it back, calling the extension story “absurd” and saying he was citing prior reports.
UPDATE, September 3: Gal Gadot has weighed in on what comes after: “If Zack comes back to run DC, I’ll come back.”
The fan theory of the week goes like this: James Gunn just signed a new contract extension at DC Studios, which means he’s locked in long-term, which means he’s directing The Brave and the Bold.
My sources say none of that is real. Nothing new has been signed.
The extension being talked about already happened, and it’s the deal Gunn is currently working under, and it runs out in 2027, right after Man of Tomorrow.
And there is no Gunn Batman movie coming.
What Jeff Sneider Said
On the August 28 episode of The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider claimed Gunn recently extended his contract with DC Studios, saying Gunn will stick around because “he just extended.”
The remark landed alongside a report from TheWrap claiming Paramount plans to keep Gunn and Peter Safran in charge of DC Studios once its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is complete.
Worth noting up front: Sneider didn’t say how long the supposed extension runs, when it was signed, or whether Safran got one, and Warner Bros., DC Studios, and Gunn have announced no new contract.
This remains an unconfirmed rumor.
The Brave and the Bold part isn’t even Sneider’s claim; that’s pure fan extrapolation stacked on top of it.
So I went to my sources.
“His Current Contract IS The Extension”
One longtime source didn’t hesitate: “It’s Gunn sending rumors to the trades. Any contract extensions are always announced, and his current contract IS the extension. He’s still limited in what he can do with the DCU.”
That tracks with the paper trail.
Gunn and Safran took over DC Studios in 2022 on four-year deals that were later extended by a year, into 2027, the announced extension that already exists.
As I reported in my Open Season story, The Hollywood Reporter has put the expiration of those deals at the end of 2026 or the end of 2027.
A second source laughed the whole thing off: “Lol that’s old news. His contract extension expires in 2027 — after MOT. People are so impatient, they think everything is going to happen in one week. As I said before, things will look very different in 6-12 months.”
Man of Tomorrow, which wrapped filming August 26, opens July 9, 2027. Do the math on what comes after.
The Receipts
Back in October 2025, I exclusively reported that Gunn would be out at DC Studios once the Paramount deal happens.
Last month, my sources said flatly the contracts will not be renewed, with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy already taking pitches from Zack Snyder, Ben Affleck, Patty Jenkins, and Christopher McQuarrie.
So why is a “new extension” suddenly making the rounds now? The second source explains the mechanics: “Gunn & Safran have friends in the media and bloggers. They’re desperate to paint a happy picture because a lot of bad press (and facts) are coming out. This is the way Hollywood works.”
The source continued: “Notice the Gunn pattern. Bad news comes out, he has an update on MOT. Bad news comes out, he talks about Batman casting. Not just him, they all do it.”
No Batman Movie
As for The Brave and the Bold, here’s the first source again, and note there’s an actual script in existence:
“There is a Brave and the Bold script laying around, but there is no way Gunn can run a studio and direct a film and oversee TV shows,
they said. “The amount of work that goes into a Batman film would be herculean, especially when it comes to balancing Batman, Damian, and previous Robins. It’s at least two years of work — prep, scheduling for pre and post.”
And the money isn’t there to greenlight it anyway: “Paramount still hasn’t greenlit huge tentpoles since the merger, and it’s evidenced by the 2028 lineup. Now imagine how long a Gunn Batman movie would take from the date of the closure of the merger.”
That lines up with everything I’ve reported about the takeover: quick, cheap, short-term projects can move, but massive long-term bets — like a DCU Batman movie — sit and wait for the Ellison regime to decide.
So what’s the Batman talk actually for?
“He sends out these rumors to gauge interest in him doing Batman, even if it undermines Matt Reeves. Right now, he simply doesn’t care. Gunn keeps everything close to the vest, and he can make rushed decisions, as with Man of Tomorrow,” said the source.
Matt Reeves, of course, is in production on The Batman Part II, and our sources say he will return as part of Ellison going all in on Batman.
Shopping For A Job?
Here’s the part fans celebrating an “extension” should sit with.
Crunchyroll announced Gunn and Guillermo del Toro as headliners of its invitation-only Anime Future Forum, an industry summit set for October 7 in New York ahead of NYCC.
Del Toro has since said he won’t attend, despite being announced as a guest of honor, and Gunn’s involvement sparked backlash from anime fans worried about Hollywood getting its hands on Japanese animation.
My source’s read: “Even him doing the Crunchyroll Anime Forum is a play for him to do things post-DC, and he knows how important that audience is, as it’s a pillar of the global audience. Guillermo del Toro has respect for the audience not to show up, but Gunn is desperate now. Anime fans are anti-corporate Hollywood, but he doesn’t care.”
“Contract Expired”
The second source left me with a prediction worth bookmarking: “And remember these words: CONTRACT EXPIRED. Not firings, not layoffs, not lawsuits. Contract(s) expired. We’ll be hearing those two little words a lot throughout 2027.”
Nobody has to fire anybody. The clock just runs out. Just like it did for the head of WB Animation.
Related: Zack Snyder is “well prepared” for a Dark Knight movie as The Last Photograph sets its TIFF premiere.
