In the wake of Batman v Superman, DC’s Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns, will be made the co-direct DC’s film division with Jon Berg. The hopes of this move is to bring in someone who can keep the movies on track with the look and feel of the longstanding comic book characters.
Described as a “course correction”, the move is thankfully not a desperate move, given Johns’ record in working on previous television projects focusing on DC’s pantheon. His credits include Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash, all of them major hits in the television market.
Geoff Johns also has a stellar record in the comic book world having written Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Flashpoint (which ushered in the New 52 era), Infinite Crisis, The Flash: Rebirth and Green Lantern: Rebirth (which is the basis of DC’s upcoming Rebirth event,which Johns is also writing.)
And this is only a small portion of his work with DC, not considering his time with Marvel and other companies.
Personally I feel this is an excellent step in the right direction to rehabilitating the current direction the DCEU. Given his experience in working on television series and in comic books, he could be the needed voice to stop the grim dark vibe DC movies and the haphazard approach to the story lines.
His understanding of the characters would bring a much needed perspective on the cinematic universe. However, this doesn’t mean I am without one concern.
First, those who may not know Geoff Johns is not only writing the bulk of DC’s Rebirth storyline, he’s also their main creative officer. Basically he’s in charge of the creative direction of the entire DC comic book universe. There’s a fair amount of stress that comes with that duty, if you could imagine.
On top of that, he’s also working on the general direction of the upcoming Rebirth even. Which is a lot of pressure for a person to have before being given the task of co-heading a film division. Now this might be a useless concern since I have little information on how the finer elements of the comic industry works.
But having been in a position that had a load of responsibilities and then being given more and more and then more tasks outside of the original job, I can see how what should be a goo thing can quickly become a problem. Of course time will tell how this will turn out, though I’d put good money that this will fix a lot of problem for the DCEU.
