A Disastrous Justice League Sends Warner Bros. into a Panic
A year and a half ago, after Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice performed terribly with critics, Wa..
A year and a half ago, after Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice performed terribly with critics, Warner Bros. reacted swiftly. Jon Berg and Geoff Johns were tapped to co-run DC Films. Berg (Argo,Live by Night) with his connection to Ben Affleck, and Johns—who came up in the industry with geeky fanboy king of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, and successfully launched the successful TV arm of DC Entertainment—would try to bring order to the floundering franchise. It was too late for them to entirely course correct on Suicide Squad, which was just as ravaged by critics as Batman v. Superman had been—but after the unalloyed success of Wonder Woman this summer, a Variety lede proclaimed: “Jon Berg and Geoff Johns are riding high.”
What a difference a few months make. After Justice League stumbled not only critically but, crucially, at the box office as well, Johns and Berg are reportedly out—and Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, et. al. are once again a group of heroes in search of a leader.
According to Variety, Berg will leave his advisory role but remain a producer at Warner Bros., working closely with Roy Lee (The Lego Movie, It), while Johns will stay chief creative officer at DC Entertainment, working in TV, publishing, and consumer products. But “going forward, his contributions to the films may evolve, and could be more advisory in nature.” Warner Bros. is reportedly planning to either announce a replacement for Johns and Berg as early as January, or simply absorb the leadership of DC Films into the studio’s larger filmmaking operation.
According to a statement from Warner Bros. Picture Group President Toby Emmerich, this shift in personnel isn’t entirely a reaction to the disappointing numbers from Justice League. Berg, Emmerich claims, had been wanting to transition out of his position for half a year. But as recently as the end of June, Berg was quoted in Variety waxing poetic about future plans for the franchise.
Due to shifting leadership at the studio, heavy edits on these superhero films, and rotating directors, it’s been tricky, in the past, to pin down who exactly is to blame for the floundering DC comics franchise. But from the moment they were promoted, Johns and Berg took ownership of Justice League. Speaking from the set in London last summer (where Berg essentially set up camp), star Ben Affleck told Mashable: “Geoff’s a big part of things. Geoff’s a brilliant guy, and there’s nobody that knows more, that I know, about comic books … he’s got a great taste, and he’s really super smart and super nice. Jon Berg, as well, has such a big role.”
That ownership means that if, as Variety put it earlier this year, Berg and Johns were “basking in the glow” of Wonder Woman’s success, they also have to take the fall for Justice League’s stumble. Without knowing who will step into the new leadership role, the future of this superhero line-up remains unclear. It should come as no surprise that franchise’s one clear success story, Wonder Woman, is still slated for a sequel, with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins returning to provide some stability to the shaky cinematic universe. Jason Momoa’s stand-alone Aquaman film wrapped production in October, so some version of that will come out in 2018—though who knows what sort of edits and re-shoots it will undergo between now and then.
Variety also reports that Ezra Miller’s Flash, a unanimous fan favorite in the Justice League cast, will still get his own movie. But it’s been a rocky road to Flashpoint, with the likes of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Seth Grahame-Smith, and Rick Famuyiwa all coming and going from the project since it was announced in 2014, while high-profile names like Sam Raimi and Marc Webbhave passed on the project altogether. Ben Affleck’s Batman, however, seems not long for the franchise. Though the actor has been going back and forth on his plans for the future of the caped crusader, the loss of his collaborator, Jon Berg, from DC Films seems a clear indicator that Affleck is indeed on his way out—and soon.
Though DC Films is in bad shape, Warner Bros. itself had a very strong 2017 with smash hits like Wonder Woman, It, and Dunkirk making up for the Justice League’s failures. In other words, there’s still time for the studio to right this ship and craft a successful superhero franchise. Then again, that’s what comic book fans said last year—when Johns and Berg were hired.
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