Geoff Johns Welcomes New DC Movie Universe Boss

Geoff Johns officially welcomes IT producer Walter Hamada, who was appointed by Warner Bros. to oversee production for all their DC Comics-based movies, not just the DCEU. Warners reveled in success during the 2000s and early 2010s with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy as well as various other comic book adaptations, but their newly-formed DCEU, which officially launched with Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, hasn’t been going the way they hoped.

A string of critical failures, coupled with the disappointing commercial performance of Snyder’s Justice League at the worldwide box office, has led to the studio restructuring their recently-erected DC Films division. DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns has been overseeing production on all DCEU movies alongside production chief Jon Berg since 2016. But following Justice League‘s release, Berg vacated his position. And now, Warner Bros. is promoting New Line Cinema’s Hamada to replace Berg as the point man for production on all the studio’s comic book movies, not just those being developed under WB’s DC Films banner. While DCEU films are the studio’s primary focus, they also develop a wide variety of other comic book adaptations as well. It seems Hamada will be overseeing those projects in addition to his duties at DC Films.

Geoff Johns took to Twitter this morning to confirm Walter Hamada’s appointment and officially welcome him to the DC Films team, while also telling him to sign up for a Twitter account. Take a look:

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!)

While comic book fans, especially fans of DC Comics’ Rebirth comics and the recently released Doomsday Clock limited series, would hope that Warner Bros. would allow Johns free reign over the DCEU, he’s not a film producer. And he’s not someone who has experience with shepherding an expanded universe, as well as multiple spinoff movies, which is why Warner Bros. brought on Hamada to work alongside him on the production side. After all, Hamada is responsible for producing films such as IT and The Conjuring. He’s had tremendous success at New Line Cinema, and now WB wants him to apply those skills to DC Films.

What’s interesting is that Hamada already seems to be involved with David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! movie, at least according to Johns. Considering that Hamada produced Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation and worked alongside James Wan (Aquaman) in developing The Conjuring franchise, it should be easy for him to transition into his position heading DC Films. Plus, it seems like this is something the studio has had in mind for quite some time if he’s already overseeing Shazam!.