The future of the DCU is something that is less clear than ever, but in the midst of the chaos a new report has suggested that James Gunn and Peter Safran were very much not the first people to be considered for the DC Studios CEO job. According to The New York Post, it seems that Gunn and Safran were simply the only ones willing to take on the highly pressurized role, with many others including Joker director Todd Phillips turning down the chance to bring the DCU back to life.
The last few months have been rocky to say the least for Warner Bros. Discovery’s comic book franchise. In fact, from the moment Zack Snyder needed to step away from Justice League in 2016, the ground seems to have eroding under the feet of anyone who steps up to take the helm of a DCU project. Now, Warner Bros. Discovery have a team in place and a soon to be revealed plan of where the franchise will be heading in the coming years.
However it looks like that team could have been very different, as it seems there were a lot of people approached to steer the DC ship before Gunn and Safran, but no one wanted the job. Along with rumors that Dan Lin was one such person asked to take over the franchise, The New York Post’s report cited an insider as saying:
“The whole town turned the job down. It was almost Todd Phillips. They begged him.”
Of course, Todd Phillips would have brought a very different flavor to the game, one that could have seen the entire franchise become more grounded like his Joker movies, or like Matt Reeves’ The Batman. With both of those projects moving nicely in their own circles, perhaps it was for the best that the DCU takes a more action-based approach to the source material for those who just haven’t been on board with The Batman’s gritty, dark take on the Caped Crusader.
Is Taking On The DC Studios Role A Mistake for James Gunn?
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One thing that has been made perfectly apparent in the last few weeks is that the role that James Gunn and Peter Safran have taken on is not going to be easy. Gunn yesterday shared several tweets addressing fan backlash, and how in the end there is a job to be done and it will be done the way it has been planned behind the scenes and not changed based on fan feedback. In part, this could be a reference to how fan-power seemed to play a big part in Zack Snyder’s Justice League being released. The #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign was something that made many social media fans believe that any hashtag campaign can now get studios to alter their future plans, but it seems that this will not work under the new DC Studios regime.
There is clearly a long way to go before fan unrest abates, and that will possibly start when Gunn reveals the new DCU plans early next year. For now though, all DC fans can do is sit back, enjoy what appears to be the coda of the DCEU and wait to see what happens next.