We’ve known for a few weeks now that changes were coming at Warner Bros.’ line of DC Comics–based superhero movies. In the wake of the severe financial and critical underperformance of Justice League, the studio announced that Jon Berg, who has been co-head of the DC movie operation since spring 2016, would be moving on to another gig. More ambiguous was the fate of the other co-head, DC Entertainment president and chief creative officer Geoff Johns. We now know who’ll be replacing Berg: It and The Conjuring production executive Walter Hamada. According to Deadline, “Hamada is known as a razor-sharp executive with a great eye for material and quality controlling production,” so this appears to be a move that will generate good buzz about the DC endeavor’s future.
However, Johns’s status remains somewhat mysterious. On the one hand, Hamada is getting the monarchic title of “President, DC-Based Film Production,” which Johns does not appear to have. On the other hand, Warner Bros. Pictures head Toby Emmerich seemed to suggest a prominent role for Johns in a statement, saying, “I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls.” Whatever Johns’s future looks like, this is good news for domestic harmony during postproduction of next year’s Aquaman, which is directed by The Conjuring’s James Wan, who is reported to be close with Hamada. Expect this to be just the latest in what promises to be a stream of news about how Warner is changing up the making of its DC flicks.
