Studio regime changes in Hollywood usually come with carefully worded statements from the executives involved and silence from the talent who depend on them. Frank Grillo, who plays Rick Flag Sr. across the rebooted DC Universe, broke that silence on camera, offering a public thank-you to James Gunn and Peter Safran after Skydance replaced the pair at the top of DC Studios.

As Deadline reported, the actor posted a video on Instagram explaining that he had waited until “the dust has settled a bit” before publicly thanking “two of the finest men that I’ve met in this business.” He called them “two of the most loyal guys” and “two of the most passionate and loving and creative human beings” he has had the honor of working with, and described the experience as “a gift.”

The shake-up follows Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Skydance announced that Gunn and Safran would leave their posts as co-chairmen and CEOs of DC Studios after four years, as it reported its first earnings as the merged studio. Jeremy Latcham, the former Marvel production executive who shepherded Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers, takes over as president and chief creative officer. He will report to Skydance Motion Picture Group co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, a change from the old arrangement in which DC’s bosses answered directly to the CEO.

Grillo’s loyalty has a paper trail. He was one of the first faces of the Gunn-Safran DCU, voicing Rick Flag Sr. in the animated series Creature Commandos before playing the character in live action in Superman and Peacemaker. He is set to return in Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel that Gunn and Safran are finishing in post-production.

The actor also drew a line between the work and the people behind it. “Whether you like their movies or not is irrelevant to me,” he said, before joking that he would pick Safran up at the airport: “Maybe not James, but Peter, definitely.” The record he chose not to defend is mixed. Superman grossed $618.7 million worldwide and the lower-budget Clayface topped the global box office two weeks running, while Supergirl, which cost a net $186 million, took in just $126.4 million. Gunn, in his own farewell statement, called the four years “trying” and admitted he had grown to dislike “the at-times corporate nature of the job.”

Gunn and Safran will keep producing DC projects, and Gunn says the pair has just been engaged on another DC film that he is writing. Latcham starts on December 1, and Man of Tomorrow is dated for July 9, 2027.

Grillo signed off by telling the pair he looks forward to “what we’re going to do next.” Which of those plans survive is now a question for Latcham, Goldberg and Greenstein, who inherit the slate Gunn and Safran built.

Tags: James Gunn, DC Studios, executive-move, Frank Grillo, Man of Tomorrow, Peter Safran