Back at the end of 2017 we heard that a shakeup was coming at DC Films. Today (via Variety) we have confirmation of the rumours. John Berg and Geoff Johns are out as Co-Presidents and will be replaced by New Line Cinema’s Walter Hamada.
Back in December Berg was left his role as President to work alongside Roy Lee who produced IT and The LEGO Movie. Whilst Johns remains Chief Creative Officer at DC overall todays press release notes that he will ‘work closely’ with the new producing team.
Walter Hamada comes to DC Films direct from New Line Cinema, home to DC’s own Shazam movie currently going in to production. Johns welcomed Hamada to the fold with a tweet posted earlier:
Welcome aboard, Walter!! Thrilled to be working with you! It’s been a blast on Shazam! — now it’s off to the rest of the DCU! (And get a twitter account!) https://t.co/qAGAWzWxWP
— Geoff Johns (@geoffjohns) January 4, 2018
Shortly after the new broke Warner Bros. head Toby Emmerich released a statement to the press:
“Walter is creative, resourceful, and committed to excellence, and will bring those qualities to his oversight of our superhero films. He’s a terrific production executive and served as an executive producer on two of the summer’s most popular films, New Line’s It and Annabelle: Creation. I’m confident Walter and Geoff, working with our filmmaking partners, will deliver films that will resonate with both broad global audiences as well as DC fanboys and fangirls. Walter’s a great addition to the Warner Bros. Pictures team, and I look forward to working with him in his new post.”
DC Films next release is 2018’s Aquaman. That film is already in the can for Hamada’s input will likely start with the soon to start rolling Wonder Woman 2 and various projects starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.