Warner Bros BEGGED 'Joker' director Todd Phillips to lead DC before Peter Safran and James Gunn
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: After Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as DC Studios head, the studio has undergone major changes. The co-heads faced a fair amount of backlash recently as they envisioned new future plans for the studios which included some shocking news like Henry Cavill being replaced as 'Superman' and Gal Gadot's 'Wonder Woman 3' being shelved. Safe to say, it was not met with much appreciation from fans as they speculated the future of DCU. However, Warner Bros' original pick was not Safran and Gunn but someone else.
The company desperately wanted 'Joker' filmmaker Todd Phillips for the co-head position although that didn't happen for some reason. Regardless, Dan Lin, who helmed Warner Bros' 'Sherlock Holmes', passed on the opportunity as well. Several reports have emerged about the future of the DCU, and Gunn has clarified some rumors while still leaving other things on an ambiguous note.
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In a new report from New York Post, Warner Bros Discovery "begged" the 'Joker' director to accept the position as the head of DC Studios. According to one of their sources, "the whole town turned the job down" before Gunn and Safran were hired. Neither Phillips nor anyone at Warner Bros Discovery and DC Studios has commented on the story at the time of publishing.
“The whole town turned the job down,” an industry source said. “It was almost Todd Phillips. They begged him.”
“Gunn has never run anything,” the source said. “I wonder if big filmmakers will work for another director with zero experience guiding movies through a huge grinder of a system. He’s not Kevin Feige [of Marvel].”
Gunn, who directed the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' trilogy for Marvel Studios along with The 'Suicide Squad' and 'Peacemaker' for Warner Bros, is no stranger to making comic book fans happy. However, some of his and Safran's early decisions have caused controversy, including that of replacing Jason Momoa as Aquaman after 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.'
Regardless, the upcoming movies in 2023 of DCU are 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,' 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods', and 'Blue Beetle.'