Zack Snyder Will No Longer Be The Architect Of The DCEU
The changing of the guard commences...
However you feel about Zack Snyder's work with Warner Bros in forming the DCEU (and he deserves a lot of credit for getting the franchise to where it is), the manner of his premature departure from Justice League was an unthinkable tragedy. Now, it seems that his role with the shared cinematic universe might be reduced significantly when he steps back from hiatus.
To date, Snyder and his wife Deborah have been the driving force behind the universe: it is their creative image that has formed everything from Man Of Steel onwards, and Snyder's identity is very much evident at every step. Wonder Woman was a divergence, of course, but there were visual and tonal statements in there that very much felt like Snyder's own creative foundations.
Moving forward, that will change, according to Mashable at least, who have cited several sources to state that "the Snyders will no longer have anything like the level of creative influence that got the franchise to this point." In their place, Joss Whedon and Geoff Johns will take over as the "architects" of the DCEU.
Given how divisive his work has been, that won't be an entirely unpopular development, and neither will the appointment of Patty Jenkins and Matt Reeves to Geoff Johns' DCEU braintrust, but Snyder has his fans. And a rabid bunch they can be.
The questions now will concern how this will change the DCEU going forward. We already know that Whedon is changing Justice League, and that he'll follow that up with his Batgirl, and Matt Reeves' The Batman will change the original vision. How the expected tonal shift will affect David Ayer's Gotham City Sirens remains to be seen - his vision for Suicide Squad felt a lot closer to Snyder's map than Wonder Woman, and there is further talk that Ayer too will depart from the DCEU.
Could that mean the end of Gotham City Sirens entirely?
If this all turns out to be true, it certainly won't be an unexpected change of direction for the DCEU, and hopefully it will end up being a positive.