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[Dalek]

Geoff Johns on the Future of DC Movies: Relax, We're Changing Everything

In their first interview since taking over the DC Films, the men put in charge of righting the ship after Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad admitted that the tone of the previous films has been wrong—and as a result, many changes are being made.

Those men are Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, the DC Comics chief creative officer and Warner Bros. executive, respectively, who are now in charge of the DC Films slate, which includes Justice League, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and many others.

“n the past, I think the studio has said, ‘Oh, DC films are gritty and dark and that’s what makes them different.’ That couldn’t be more wrong,” Johns told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a hopeful and optimistic view of life. Even Batman has a glimmer of that in him. If he didn’t think he’d make tomorrow better, he’d stop.”

The pair admitted many of those changes are first going to be first seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is almost done filming for a November 2017 release. Berg admitted after seeing the reactions to Batman v Superman, they “accelerated the [Justice League] story to get to the hope and optimism a little faster.”

That film will also “directly address Batman’s extreme actions in [Batman v Superman], such as torturing criminals and nearly killing the Man of Steel, rather than accept them as par for the course.” That’s similar to what happened in Batman v Superman, which addressed Superman’s inadvertent destruction of the city of Metropolis during Man of Steel for its first act.

In addition to overseeing all the films, Johns is working more directly on a few of them. We already knew he was writing the Batman solo film for Ben Affleck to star and direct, but he also did a rewrite on Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman film, which will be the next one out.

Praise be Geoff Johns. I knew he was the right person to be helming the DC films. You need only to look at DC Rebirth to see how he views the universe and how much optimism and hope are important to his stories.

 

[Green Mamba]

So is every DC movie just going to be cleaning up the mistakes of the last one?

 

[Dalek]

So is every DC movie just going to be cleaning up the mistakes of the last one?

Well at this point there's 3 films to sweep under the rug...better now than down the line.

 

[BossDarkseid]

So is every DC movie just going to be cleaning up the mistakes of the last one?

That's not what was said at all :/

When he took over he looked at the film slate and started reworking them to have a unified tone that supposedly goes someway to better representing the characters.

Edit: may have misunderstood you

 

[RubberJohnny]

This feels like the most reactionary film franchise out there at the moment, correcting course and then correcting for the correction.

 

[Hydrargyrus]

This universe needs more Marthas

 

[Guevara]

Kind of sounds like they're still defending the films and blaming the fans.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Well at this point there's 3 films to sweep under the rug...better now than down the line.

4 if you include whatever the fuck was green lantern.

 

[mariachi507]

I'm glad they're going to tackle Batman's brutal and murderous methods, it could be interesting from a character standpoint.

 

[jmdajr]

This feels like the most reactionary film franchise out there at the moment, correcting course and then correcting for the correction.

seems like it

 

[pizzaparty]

This universe needs more Marthas

Crisis on Infinite Marthas.

 

[SpaceWolf]

That film will also “directly address Batman’s extreme actions in [Batman v Superman], such as torturing criminals and nearly killing the Man of Steel, rather than accept them as par for the course.”

As a die-hard Batman fan, this is literally the only thing they could say that would get me even moderately interested in the DC Film Universe again.

A Batman who goes out of his way to murder and mutilate criminals just isn't Batman to me. Full stop.

If they address that bullshit head-on when Batman next appears on screen, I might consider paying to see these films again.

 

[Discotheque]

instead of looking at the rebirth comics (which i am enjoying no doubt) and the mcu and the cartoons and all that shit they should just literally keep playing Spiderman 2 and TDK trilogy ad nauseum until they realize those are the films they should strive for when handling Superman and Batman's characterization and writing.

 

[echoshifting]

Crisis on Infinite Marthas.

Final Martha

 

[Sephzilla]

This universe needs more Marthas

The DC Cinematic Marthaverse

 

[Dalek]

Final Martha

Identity Martha

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

It's funny that Geoff Johns is now the "hope and optimism" guy for DC films considering a lot of his work in comics is sometimes unnecessarily bleak and ultra-violent. But I like the guy and I hope he does miracles. Rebirth was a good shot in the arm for DC.

Still, let's not get too optimistic yet, he's a good comic-book writer but we don't now how that translates into screenwriting and producing films.

 

[VanWinkle]

Kind of sounds like they're still defending the films and blaming the fans.

Show me what implies that in the article please.

 

[HStallion]

MarthaSeid

 

[Sephzilla]

Marthapoint

 

[Discotheque]

Still, let's not get our hopes too high yet, he's a good comic-book writer but we don't now how that translates into screenwriting and producing films.

yeah we'll see how he pans out. kind of worried about him working on Batman tbh.

 

[VanWinkle]

yeah we'll see how he pans out. kind of worried about him working on Batman tbh.

Why? Batman Earth One is FANTASTIC.

 

[Nudull]

Zero Martha: Martha in Time

 

[Dalek]

Why? Batman Earth One is FANTASTIC.

It really is. Actually everything Earth One is great except Superman which is trash.

 

[Alienous]

That film will also “directly address Batman’s extreme actions in [Batman v Superman], such as torturing criminals and nearly killing the Man of Steel, rather than accept them as par for the course.”

That's hilarious. As the article writer picked up on, that's exactly what Man of Steel was suposed to do.

I'm glad they aren't just going to pretend the killing didn't happen. They made that bed, they should lie in it.

Why? Batman Earth One is FANTASTIC.

I didn't think it was great. Different for the sake of being different. The art was good, and I liked Alfred being a bodyguard, but Batman Begins did a much better job of a grounded Batman.

 

[Discotheque]

Why? Batman Earth One is FANTASTIC.

it's also a comic book. we still don't know how his film writing will be. hopefully it works out. I wouldn't be happy with batman getting some bland film.

and honestly i don't even like earth one that much.

 

[thecouncil]

I liked when Batman murdered someone and then said to Martha, "It's okay, I'm a friend of your son's" and Martha smiled and said, "I figured" because her son murders people too. That was fun. That was light.

 

[El Topo]

I thought the problem with DC movies was that the writing and directing sucked, how is changing the tone going to fix any of that? Either way, they better not fuck up Wonder Woman.

 

[VanWinkle]

It should be noted that Geoff Johns has shown several times in comics that he can take a mess of continuity and craziness and make sense of it and move on from it.

I thought the problem with DC movies was that the writing and directing sucked, how is changing the tone going to fix any of that?

Both the tone and quality are almost always criticized regarding the movies so far.

 

[Pandora012]

4 if you include whatever the fuck was green lantern.

There was a GL movie?

 

[LegendofDragoonLives]

Geoff Johns on the Future of DC Movies: Relax, We're Changing Everything



Praise be Geoff Johns. I knew he was the right person to be helming the DC films. You need only to look at DC Rebirth to see how he views the universe and how much optimism and hope are important to his stories.

Is he responsible for Suicide Squad's last minute editing that made the movie progressively worse? Because if so, then meh. Otherwise, I'll have a little bit of optimism.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

It should be noted that Geoff Johns has shown several times in comics that he can take a mess of continuity and craziness and make sense of it and move on from it.

Yeah it's kind of his strong suit to clean up messes that other writers leave for him lol

 

[Alienous]

It should be noted that Geoff Johns has shown several times in comics that he can take a mess of continuity and craziness and make sense of it and move on from it.

Examples?

 

[VanWinkle]

Examples?

Flash, Green Lantern, JSA

 

[Corpsepyre]

I don't think Johns can turn the tide here and get Wonder Woman and JL $4 and $8 billion at the box office respectively, which is what they need for success.

 

[kmfdmpig]

That's hilarious. As the article writer picked up on, that's exactly what Man of Steel was suposed to do.

I'm glad they aren't just going to pretend the killing didn't happen. They made that bed, they should lie in it.



I didn't think it was great. Different for the sake of being different. The art was good, and I liked Alfred being a bodyguard, but Batman Begins did a much better job of a grounded Batman.

It's not so out of the norm for a comic book movie to address what came before. X-Men has done that and so has the MCU (Civil War dealt with the collateral damage from previous films, for example).

 

[Alienous]

Flash, Green Lantern, JSA

Well those are indeed titles of comic books.

 

[johnnydrama]

Great thread so far.

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

Examples?

That's most of his career, from Green Lantern and the redemption of Hal Jordan to recently solving many of the issues of the New 52 with Rebirth. And there was also his Hawkman story in JSA that managed to actually condense decades of contradictory nonsense into a pretty simple and fun story.

 

[VanWinkle]

Well those are indeed titles of comic books.

Oh I am definitely not going to explain everything he had to work with. If you're curious I'm sure you can find more in depth info somewhere.

 

[guek]

I'll only start becoming optimistic once Snyder is excised or if WW is better than expected.

 

[Tansut]

Yo dawg I heard you like course correction so I corrected the course correction on your course correction.

 

[Hydrargyrus]

No country for old Martha

 

[Alienous]

That's most of his career, from Green Lantern and the redemption of Hal Jordan to recently solving many of the issues of the New 52 with Rebirth. And there was also his Hawkman story in JSA that managed to actually condense decades of contradictory nonsense into a pretty simple and fun story.

Oh right, he seperated Hal Jordan from Parallax right?

 

[VanWinkle]

Oh right, he seperated Hal Jordan from Parallax right?

Yes

 

[Slayven]

Zero Martha: Martha in Time

Countdown to Martha

 

[Tansut]

Countdown to Martha

Mompoint

 

[serenewarfare]

No matter what your opinion of Johns, one thing I think mostly everyone can agree on is that he understands what makes a vast majority of these DC characters work in their respective stories and at their most basic level. And the film universe can only benefit from having a guy like that on top of everything.

 

[Slayven]

Mompoint

Blackest Martha

 

[Sephzilla]

All of these Martha events ultimately boil down to the Martha Corps War