Uh oh, is trouble brewing at Warner Bros. over their struggles with the DCU? Last night we learned that "creative differences" had caused Seth Grahame-Smith to drop out of directing The Flash, although the nature of what those differences are is unclear. It could be anything, but it was inevitable that in the wake of poor reviews for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice there was going to be some kind of change in approach. And it looks like those studio concerns have finally reached Zack Snyder and his Justice League film, with a bigger shake-up a definite possibility.
A report at Birth.Movies.Death claims that Snyder is butting heads with Warner Bros. behind-the-scenes as he begins shooting on Justice League. Apparently, studio execs wanted to take more definitive action, like maybe removing Snyder from the film entirely or pushing back the release date, given the poor response and underwhelming box office of 'Batman v Superman'. But since shooting on Justice League followed so closely behind, they couldn't really do anything about Snyder and things just had to proceed as planned. That hasn't stopped Warner Bros. and Snyder from fighting, however.
And there could be ramifications beyond Justice League, too, as Aquaman director James Wan is seriously considering whether all of this pressure is worth it. He's spoken in the past about wanting to make the aquatic hero's film more "fun", probably similar to what he was able to do on Fast 7. But if he's going to face push back and have to make a lot of compromises creatively, what's the point? He's one director who has more than enough to do without having to add a superhero movie to his resume.
So keep an eye on this situation. The source has been decent when it comes to reporting on the DCU, but they haven't been perfect. They were only half right about the Suicide Squad reshoots, for instance. There's likely more to this story than they know. However, when there's smoke there's fire, and clearly some within Warner Bros. are starting to feel the heat. If Suicide Squad doesn't work out, we could see a lot of heads rolling in response.
