Following the critical failure of Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. apparently tried meddling with other DCEU projects, and may have caused more harm than good.
According to Splash Report, it got to a breaking point with David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which was allegedly completely re-done at the studio’s request. The reported micro-managing didn’t stop there, however, leading to some high-profile exits, including The Flash’s Rick Famuyiwa, who left the project over creative differences.
The only project to retain its original director is Aquaman with James Wan, but that was only after he threatened to walk away if they pulled his creative control.
“Wan saw how Warner Bros. had suddenly put their hands all over Snyder’s Batman v. Superman and Ayer’s Suicide Squad, and he threatened to leave unless they left him alone to make Aquaman as he saw fit,” a source told Splash Report.
The same situation happened to newly-minted The Batman director Matt Reeves. While in negotiations with Warner Bros, the studio refused to give him creative control, so he walked away. According to the report, the studio didn’t want another misfire with a director and decided to give him what he wanted. Soon after, he signed on to direct the movie.
The next two years will either make or break the DCEU
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard negative things about DCEU productions. There have been rumblings Wonder Woman isn’t any good, and there isn’t a lot of faith that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be much better than his past films. This is not the best recipe to start a successful franchise with multiple big-budget movies on the slate.
With three movies planned to be released over the next two years, this is the time for Warner Bros. and DCEU to start a course correction if there will ever be one.