‘Land grab’ in play at Warner Bros over DC characters

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An insider report is suggesting that in the absence of a single creative vision, several key figures are making power plays for DC characters at Warner Bros.

As it stands, there is nobody properly in charge of Warner Bros’ DC movies right now. The current incumbent, Walter Hamada, is in the process of making a quiet exit whilst the big boss David Zaslav has oversight, but also has the rest of Warner Bros Discovery to contend with. With efforts to find a Kevin Feige-type creative overseer seemingly not bearing fruit as of yet, The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that several key figures are making power movies whilst a leadership vacuum exists.

The particularly interesting thing is that some of these projects might clash. Among the potential films being put forward are a sequel to Man Of Steel 2 which is said to be the favoured approach of Zaslav, whilst Dwayne Johnson is said to be pushing hard for the Man Of Steel to instead feature in a ‘versus’ movie with his own screen character, Black Adam.

Meanwhile, JJ Abrams, Matt Reeves and James Gunn are all working on their own projects. Reeves is reportedly planning future movies based on Batman’s rogues’ gallery whilst Abrams is said to be trying to push projects through too, one of which could be the Black Superman project that was supposed to be written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Gunn is reportedly working on more than one film project as well.

Whilst the situation may be creatively freeing, it doesn’t sound like the kind of unified storytelling that Zaslav hinted was the future for the DC Extended Universe when he outlined a grand future for the highly valuable property. We’d urge you to go have a read of the full piece. Be wary though, there seems to be a key spoiler in there for Black Adam. 

The situation itself is interesting as any creative godfather that comes in to oversee things may well find themselves increasingly restricted as ‘IP continues to be taken off the board by power players’, according to the report. The same report also quotes one insider who states “right now it’s the Wild West. Everyone is trying to grab as much as they can. And this is exactly what happens in a leadership vacuum.”

How this all shakes out will eventually become apparent as we see which projects make it into production. As we hear more on this one, you can be sure we’ll let you know. Let’s hope we don’t get DC League Of Superpets 2.

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