Rumor: Warner Bros. and DC Films Expected Justice League to Fail

Daniel Mills |

Feb 3, 2018

The Proof is in the “Pudding”

Justice League is a mess that Warner Bros. and DC Films are going to have to address for years and years. It made the biggest team in comic books into one of the biggest laughing stocks in Hollywood. Other than making Walter Hamada the new President of DC Films, Warner Bros. haven’t reacted to the film’s lack of success. While audiences may have been surprised by Justice League’s failure, a new rumor reveals Warner Bros. wasn’t.

According to Revenge of the Fans, every problem of the film was a sign of the studio’s pessimism.

Why? Because they felt whether it was the Snyder Cut, or their cut, the film was going to be a sore spot for the DC Universe (DCU). That’s why they allowed a film with half-baked CG to go into wide release; That’s why they didn’t bother having Ciaran Hinds return for substantial reshoots to beef up Steppenwolf’s plot, despite the fact that he really needed more substance now that he was no longer building towards Darkseid…

It also affected how the creatives and executives went on to promote the film. Or how they didn’t promote the film.

That’s why you didn’t see Geoff Johns out their campaigning for the film the way he had with Wonder Woman; It’s also why Joss Whedon never, ever went out of his way to publicly associate himself with the film, and why the studio reciprocated by not making a bigger deal that “The director of The Avengers“ had a hand in creating the final cut- something that may have been a decent selling point to get MCU fans to cross over and check out DC’s latest.

To see so many of Comic’s greatest creatives completely abandon promotion of a major film was a shock and a surprise… to everyone but the filmmakers.

Lesson…Learned?

What will come of the failure of Justice League? DC and Warner Bros. are making it look like they’re trying to turn things around. They’re taking more time on their films, hiring veteran filmmakers, and giving fans the sequels they actually want to see. But is their goal creating a great slate of DC Comics-based films, or just making more profits on the next ones?

Hopefully, DC and Warner Bros. will put the lesson learned on Justice League to good use in their future films. The difficulty comes in discerning what lessons the studio could have learned when they seemed to be more than okay with one of their biggest blockbuster’s failing. If they didn’t bother trying to fix a broken film, will they try to fix the next one? All signs point to yes.

Geoff Johns is still a major part of DC Films, and everyone knows he’s the biggest DC Comics fan there is. If anyone took the failure of Justice League poorly, it was him. Johns wrote the team’s comic for almost four years, after all. It’s probable that Johns wanted the film to be more of a success than either of its directors. Walter Hamada could be just the kind of enthusiastic producer to join Johns on his crusade to make DC Films a success. Hamada has worked wonder for the horror division at Warner Bros., here’s hoping he can make the same magic for DC.

It’s sad and not surprising that DC and Warner Bros. were preparing for Justice League to be a failure. And it shows a lack of enthusiasm for the characters and the fans.

But with time and care, a few good decisions should be able to get the greatest collection of heroes and villains back on track.