DC: So About Last Weekend for the DCEU... · 2:52pm May 2nd, 2016
So last weekend was an... odd weekend for the DCEU. The Hollywood rumor-mill would have you believe it was disastrous, but honestly there was only one bit of actually worrisome news, and even that was a rumor. So let's run down the list.
(1) Seth Grahame-Smith left "The Flash," citing creative differences. At first glance, this looks bad, but consider the following. (1) It didn't sound so much like he left as WB pushed him out because they seemed to realize they made a mistake in selecting him because (2) Grahame-Smith had never directed a movie in his entire life. The last time a director with very little experience was given a major superhero project, we got Josh Trank directing Fantastic Four after only one mildly successful film in Chronicle, and... yeah, we all know what a mess that turned into. Most likely, WB was engaging in simple course correction and making sure to avoid any chance of a repeat of that; certainly none of us would want to risk Grahame-Smith getting into drunken stupors on set and destroying equipment, much less butting heads with the studio over the narrative. So really, I chalk this up as good news. They're keeping Grahame-Smith's script, which was heavily based on something Phillip Lord and Christopher Miller put together to begin with, and just shopping around now for a far more experienced director. Sadly Lord and Miller are off the table since they're busy already, but hopefully they land a good catch soon, like maybe Edgar Wright or someone else.
Even most Hollywood outlets seemed to realize this in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, so yeah, count this as a win for the DCEU, especially if they get a very experienced director. But of course, since that wasn't as dramatic as they wanted, we just "had" to pile onto the rumor mill, leading us to...
(2) James Wan was rumored to be considering leaving Aquaman due to feeling a tremendous amount of pressure over the film. Now, the source of this rumor was Devin Faraci, the same guy who reported (incorrectly) that Suicide Squad reshoots were to add more humor to it (before getting brutally shot down by both Jai Courtney and David Ayer). By his own claims, he never said James Wan was considering leaving, but he specifically phrased it as Wan was feeling great "trepidation," so it's pretty clear he knew outlets would run with that wording and interpret it as meaning he was considering leaving. Well last night, James Wan had this to say...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, beautiful. A few more tweets of his pretty much confirmed that, yes, he is very much still attached to Aquaman. It doesn't mean he hasn't been feeling any pressure from the studio, but he's certainly not on the brink of leaving.
(3) Our final rumor is the most worrisome simply because I find it to be the most plausible. A rumor emerged that Zack Snyder and WB have been majorly butting heads over Justice League's production. No word if this means Snyder would leave JL anytime soon, but it's worrisome simply because Josh Trank engaged in similar behavior with Fox during FF's production. If there's any truth to this rumor, I would hope for a couple of things: (1) Zack Snyder accepts compromising with studio needs in an acceptable manner that makes the final product more palatable to a general audience and less strictly adhering to his vision, (2) if Snyder can't compromise, they remove him from the project as soon as possible and possibly move back Justice League, even if it means that all they have for 2017 is Wonder Woman. WB is clearly not going to cancel any of these projects, but if they had to reshuffle the scheduling of these movies, I would not be opposed to that for the sake of the DCEU's quality.
Of course, there may not be any substance to this rumor either, but I can see it being a distinct possibility simply because WB has to be starting to become impatient with Snyder. Their impatience will only grow if Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman are far better received than MoS or BvS, since at that point they'll be able to point to directors being far more successful in the DCEU than he has been. Hopefully Snyder is getting the message and JL production is going just fine, but we'll just have to wait and see about that.
Overall, like I said, this was NOT a catastrophic weekend for the DCEU as Hollywood outlets would have you believe it was. If anything, it was more good than bad. Given the mixed track record of the DCEU so far, rumor mill weekends like this are probably inevitable to periodically keep happening until they get a definitively solid hit, which hopefully will happen this August. But hopefully my interpretation of these events has helped clear some things up for anyone who might've been confused by everything that happened last weekend.
EDIT: I have been reminded kindly by a friend that another rumor from last week was that George Miller is rumored to be on tap to direct Green Lantern Corps. Frankly I would love to see this happen and hope they finalize the director selection for that film soon.
*applauds*