Aside from Wonder Woman, the DC Extended Universe has faced a fair share of problems in its relatively brief existence, and now after the very underwhelming release of Justice League, Warner Bros. has decided to make some changes.
Having previously set DC Comics CEO Geoff Johns and executive Jon Berg to oversee the division in the wake of the disappointment of Batman v Superman, the studio has now decided to go in another new direction.
Berg left his post last month, while Johns has been moved to “more of an advisory role” – whatever that means – and Warner Bros. has now announced that Walter Hamada will oversee DC Films production. Hamada was previously a production executive at New Line – which is under the Warner Bros. banner – and produced high-grossing films such as The Conjuring and It.
It’s a smart move on paper, since Hamada already has a working relationship with Aquaman director James Wan, having worked with the filmmaker on The Conjuring and its spinoffs. Hamada will also oversee other types of comic book movies that the studio produces that are outside of the DC canon.
Hamada will now be expected to right a ship that has got stockholders worried and has somewhat made the DCEU the butt of many jokes. With Warner Bros. seemingly completely off the Zack Snyder bandwagon, it’ll be interesting to see what filmmakers Hamada lines up for future films, and what his overall plan is in regards to simply making the DCEU better.
The studio has begun exploring one-off DC adaptations separate from the DCEU in the hopes of attracting auteur filmmakers to come in, hopefully make a well-received film, and be on their way without having to sign a multi-picture contract. That sounds like a solid idea in theory, as DC’s attempts thus far to follow the MCU model almost exactly have mostly failed.
Upcoming releases for the DCEU will be key, of which Wan’s Aquaman is one of them and currently set to hit cinemas in November 2018, while Shazam is about to go into production as one of the first DCEU films not to be overseen by Snyder, so it will be interesting to track the progress of that. And of course, Wonder Woman 2 is in active development with a view towards a 2019 release date.
The next few years could be key for the DCEU, and perhaps the existence of extended universes outside of the MCU as a whole, and Warner Bros. will be hoping Hamada can steer them in the right direction.
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