It’s no secret that, in the fallout of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. brass were forced into some soul-searching just as the DC Extended Universe was supposed to be taking shape. Creative changes were enforced, and in terms of Justice League, Ben Affleck was elected executive producer, which will no doubt serve the writer-director well as he maps out that gestating Batman solo movie.
But now, as we stand on the brink of 2017, all eyes are beginning to turn toward Wonder Woman and Justice League as two tentpoles with the power to fire Warner’s universe in the right direction. That’s something DC producer Charles Roven knows all too well.
Chatting to The Hollywood Reporter (via io9), the illustrious executive began by teasing the ways in which both Wonder Woman and Justice League will be different to what has come before. First up, he views the former as “an origination story, so the whole dynamic and the plot moves are different than other DC movies. There’s also a great relationship between her and the guy [played by Chris Pine] who crash-lands on her island and is the trigger mechanism for her going back to man’s world.”
Out of the two films mentioned, Justice League looks to be the one to have undergone the biggest changes following Batman V Superman. Here’s what Roven had to say: “We knew we were making a very serious, compelling, driving film with Batman v Superman. Now the bell has been rung and the whole tone of the movie is lighter.”
Reflecting back on the moment when Warner Bros. announced its ambitious slate, Roven then conceded that the studio failed to draft up a contingency plan.
The studio made me the producer of all the DC movies, and they announced eight. When we finished the [timetable], we looked at each other and said, “This is incredibly ambitious, but we haven’t taken into consideration if something goes wrong.” We also hadn’t decided where we were going to shoot those movies. As difficult as it was for me to commute from Toronto to London to Italy, it became really clear I couldn’t do the job that I do as a producer [with Aquaman likely to shoot in Australia]. I’m for sure producing the sequels of the movies that I have made.
Next up for Warner and DC is the release of Wonder Woman on June 2, 2017, before Gal Gadot is flanked by her fellow heroes – brought to life by Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher and Ezra Miller – when Justice League rolls around in November.
