Rumor: Geoff Johns’ ‘Justice League’ Rewrites Caused Issues With Chris Terrio, WB Execs

A new rumor claims Geoff Johns — who stepped down as DC chief creative officer Monday — caused issues with both Justice League screenwriter Chris Terrio and Warner Bros. executives.

“I remember hearing that Geoff Johns rewrote so much of Justice League when Zack Snyder was still directing that Chris Terrio would complain, ‘Maybe try using some of my pages?’” wrote Vulture senior editor Kyle Buchanan on Twitter.

“WB was allegedly so unsatisfied with how the Johns/Snyder version was shaping up,” Buchanan wrote in a subsequent tweet, “that they convened a footage summit for other writers including Joss Whedon, Allan Heinberg, Seth Grahame-Smith, and Andrea Berloff to offer feedback. Then they hired Whedon.”

Terrio, who also scripted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, received a “screenplay by” credit on Justice League as did Joss Whedon. Terrio crafted the story with original director Zack Snyder.

The “and” credit shared by the two signifies Terrio and Whedon did not work together. Johns is credited solely as executive producer.

Heinberg scripted 2017’s Wonder Woman — the DC Extended Universe‘s only film not to carry a “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes — while Grahame-Smith was once attached to direct the Flash solo, while Berloff writes and directs The Kitchen for Warner Bros., an adaptation of DC and Vertigo’s mob drama comic book of the same name.

Johns, once overseer of the DC film universe for Warner Bros. alongside Jon Berg, reportedly “clashed loudly” with DC chief and 25-year WB veteran Diane Nelson, according to Deadline.

Berg left that role in December — he’s now a production partner at WB alongside Roy Lee, who developed The LEGO Movie and It, two of the studios’ biggest hits in recent years — while Nelson announced her retirement last week.

Snyder stepped down as director on Justice League last year after suffering a personal tragedy. The studio tapped The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron writer-director Joss Whedon to steer reshoots and finish the film, which eventually arrived in theaters to poor reviews and the lowest box office of any DC Extended Universe film.

According to a November write up from The Wrap, members of Warner Bros. approached president Greg Silverman about ousting Snyder from the Justice League director’s chair following Batman v Superman‘s poor critical reception and under-performance at the box office.

Snyder’s exit from the film and its subsequent poor reception and relatively weak box office lead to the apparent end of Snyder’s collaboration with the shared universe as a director.

The failure of Justice League was reported to be the cause for a major shake up at Warner Bros. in regards to the DCEU, which next releases Aquaman in December followed by Shazam! and Wonder Woman 2 in 2019.

Johns will receive a screenplay credit on both Aquaman and Wonder Woman 2 as well as Green Lantern Corps, which Johns will both write and produce.