Geoff Johns' opinion currently carries substantial weight at Warner Bros., but there was a time when that wasn’t the case. That’s how Zack Snyder wound up with free rein to make Man of Steel to his liking, despite warnings from Johns about its tone.
Vulture recently published a lengthy report in which Johns and DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson spelled out the revised strategy for the continuity of future DC movies. The website revealed that the duo was creatively marginalized during the early days of the nascent DC Extended Universe.
When the studio decided to reboot Superman following the release of The Dark Knight, they sought Christopher Nolan’s advice on how to move forward. Nolan came up with Darren Aronofsky and Snyder as possible directors. The studio moved ahead with Snyder, who set his sights on concocting a dark and gritty Superman movie.
Johns, who had only served as a consultant for Green Lantern – a critical and commercial disaster – voiced his concerns about how dark the Man of Steel script was. However, Warner Bros. paid no attention. According to one studio insider:
Geoff Johns and Diane were reading scripts, and Geoff Johns, to his credit, was concerned that there was not enough lightness or humor, given who the character was. Geoff definitely raised that point, but that current administration didn't care that much about what Geoff Johns thought.
It wasn't until 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that the studio began to pay attention when Johns expressed an opinion. They appointed him and producer Jon Berg as co-heads of their DC Films banner. Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman presented their first opportunity to make a major contribution. The movie bagged raved reviews, and went on to surpass the North American box office take of all previous DCEU installments.
Vulture reported that Johns and Berg wanted someone other than Zack Snyder to write some additional scenes for Justice League. Around the same time, they met with Joss Whedon about making a Batgirl movie, and managed to convince him to write for the November 17 release, as well. Johns explained:
Everyone was excited about Joss being a part of DC, and we thought he'd be great to write the [Justice League] scenes, the additional photography scenes that we wanted to get.
Snyder had to leave the project to deal with a family tragedy, so Whedon stepped in as director. He finished up with some reshoots and other post-production tasks.
