Man of Steel Writer Reveals WB Pressured For Their MCU With DC

Warner Bros. was pushing for the DCEU to be like the MCU behind-the-scenes. A new interview with DC Comics movie writer David S. Goyer revealed how executives were angling to get toward Justice League. Josh Horowitz got the full details on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast and the scribe makes it clear that matching Marvel Studios was an internal priority of sorts. Man of Steel made the company a lot of money and as soon as Superman worked, the executives in charge wanted things to speed up immediately. This unsettled some of the creatives behind-the-scenes. But, they did their best to comply with the mandates.

“I know the pressure we were getting from Warner Bros., which was, ‘We need our MCU! We need our MCU!’ And I was like let’s not run before we walk,” Goyer revealed. “The other thing that was difficult at the time was there was this revolving door of executives at Warner Bros. and DC. Every 18 months someone new would come in. We were just getting whiplash. Every new person was like, ‘We’re going to go bigger!’”

“I remember at one point the person running Warner Bros. at the time had this release that pitched the next 20 movies over the next 10 years. But none of them had been written yet!” Goyer added during the conversation. “It was crazy how much architecture was being built on air… This is not how you build a house.”

Previous DC Films Regimes Had Serious Hurdles To Clear

Of course, none of this is very dissimilar to what James Gunn himself said about the previous regimes at DC. At an introductory press conference, the creative agreed that the company began trying to run before they could walk multiple times. In their new approach, they’re going to do a bunch of different projects before attempting to unify the Justice League. From the sounds of Goyer’s comments, that’s probably a good idea.

“Well, the history has been sh-t. It’s been a real f-cked up journey for DC,” Gunn previously said a press event detailing DC Studios’s future. “I think that there was basically no one minding the mint, and they were giving out IP to any creatives that smiled at whoever was in charge. There was never any real power given to the people in charge.” 

“And so somebody could always go over their head and do whatever they wanted. We had the DCEU, which then became the Joss Whedon Justice League, but it also became the Snyderverse, which became this,” he added. “We have Wonder Woman, then we have Wonder Woman 2, which doesn’t even match what happened in Wonder Woman 1. And then we have the Arrowverse, and even us coming in with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker and, what is it exactly? And then all of a sudden Bat-Mite’s a real guy.”

A New Day For DC Studios

These days, James Gunn and Peter Safran sit at the head of DC Studios. Their take on these iconic characters is coming up in the next few years. While Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom premieres this winter, there’s not a lot left for the DCEU versions of the Justice League to do. Moving forward, Gunn and Safran will have their chance to deliver their own interpretation on the superheroes of DC. They issued a statement once they took over things from the previous regime.

“We’re honored to be the stewards of these DC characters we’ve loved since we were children,” Gunn and Safran added in a joint statement. “We look forward to collaborating with the most talented writers, directors, and actors in the world to create an integrated, multilayered universe that still allows for the individual expression of the artists involved. Our commitment to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Harley Quinn, and the rest of the DC stable of characters is only equaled by our commitment to the wonder of human possibility these characters represent. We’re excited to invigorate the theatrical experience around the world as we tell some of the biggest, most beautiful, and grandest stories ever told.”

Do you agree with Goyer’s assessment? Let us know in the comments!