After the disappointing box office of Justice League, Warner Brothers has once again overreacted and basically hit the reset button rather than give themselves time to find their footing even though they have still made money. After the critical failure of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice they restructured and put Jon Berg and Geoff Johns in charge of DC Films. However, these two were never given the chance they deserve to prove themselves since they came on board in the middle of productions and contracts had already been signed. They never had the opportunity to guide the films with their vision not to mention, certain mandates by Warner Brothers that were beyond Johns and Berg’s control, such as the running time, caused Justice League to suffer.
But because Justice League was a disappointment financially, WB has now responded by replacing Jon Berg and Geoff Johns with Walter Hamada. Hamada served as production executive for New Line for a decade and because of his connection to the horror film The Conjuring, Hamada also has a close relationship with Aquaman director, James Wan. Before New Line Hamada was a partner in H2F Entertainment, a VP of production for Columbia and ran development for MBST Entertainment.
Personally, I look forward to seeing what Hamada can accomplish, and being the mega DC fan that I am I hope it works out. But at the same time I am very disappointed and feel that by replacing Johns they have replaced the one person that could be the equivalent of their Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios. Fortunately, Geoff Johns is still very active as he looks to still be a creative consultant for Hamada while he also retains his title of CCO at DC Comics.
Warner Brothers needs to trust in somebody the way Disney does in Feige for Marvel Studios and Kennedy for Star Wars. Here’s hoping that Hamada is the person for the job… but knowing Warner Brothers, the first misstep and they will restructure again.
