Geoff Johns Reaffirms The Optimistic Approach To DC Films

The DC Extended Universe was in a pretty rough spot. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad split audiences, and many were wondering if Warner Bros. should just try again with a reboot. Some said the movies are too dark, depressing, and an overall grim look on the DC world. Warner Brothers needed to look inward and see what needed to change. After the success of Wonder Woman, it seems they’ve done a complete turnaround. The Wrap spoke with DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns and their apparent rebirth.

Johns’ said: “Get to the essence of the character and make the movies fun. Just make sure that the characters are the characters with heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism at the base.” This is something that was a problem with the previous films, and something that Wonder Woman did really well. Hopefully, this will carry over into Justice League.

Back in May of last year, after the release of Batman v Superman – WB chairman Kevin Tsujihara, former president of Creative Development Greg Silverman, and president of DC Entertainment and Warner Bros Diane Nelson, – decided to have writer Geoff Johns (The Flash, Green Lantern) and producer Jon Berg (Edge of Tomorrow, Argo) oversee their DC films. This isn’t the first time Johns has had to breath new life into a DC Universe. Just last year Johns wrote DC Universe: Rebirth, an 80-page book helping DC Comics get back on track after The New 52 [a run from 2011-2016 that was ironically deemed too dark and dreary etc].

Sue Kroll [president of marketing and distribution] said: “The trick for us was to broaden out this movie [Wonder Woman] beyond the core audience of superhero fans. The balance we were trying to find was [to market] a superhero film that transcended the genre, that worked both for males and females and never denigrated the proposition. That didn’t play into any of the baggage, the cliches.” From here WB was confident. They had early screenings and the reaction was extremely positive [our review here]. The DCU has found it’s mojo and it doesn’t stop here. Johns and Berg will be working closely with the directors of their next set of films. Director Matt Reeves is about to start working on The Batman, James Wan is in the middle of working on Aquaman, The Flash just got a new script from Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of The Sword), and Joss Whedon begins additional photography for Justice League. They’re also moving forward with plans for a Wonder Woman sequel.

Things are looking up for DC Films, and we can’t wait to see what happens next. For more news on everything DC, stay tuned. For The Wrap’s full post click here.

Justice League hits theaters November 17th.