Why DC Just Cancelled Jared Leto's Joker Movies

6. Warner Bros. Are Restructuring Their Future DC Projects

DC Extended Universe Intro
Warner Bros.

It's been clear since the middle of 2018 that Warner Bros. were keen on restructuring their DC plans for the future. At the time, Zack Snyder and Geoff Johns were the two principle architects of the franchise, but with back-to-back critical duds and a commercial disappointment in Justice League, something obviously needed to change. Before Justice League, though, WB had gone ahead and announced several new films, including The Flash (now on hold), Cyborg (status unknown), a David Ayer-helmed Gotham City Sirens (cancelled), and the aforementioned Joker features starring Leto.

Aquaman, despite being a part of that initial slate, boasted a drastic difference in tone compared to its predecessors, and it ended up dominating at the box office. Shazam! too looks like a massive tonal departure compared to the likes of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, and given what we've seen of Birds of Prey so far, it's likely that film will follow suit.

Warner Bros. are clearly taking the franchise in a different direction compared to when Snyder and Johns were at the helm. The latter is still said to be involved in some capacity, but DC's future projects already indicate that they're trying something new.

Among the films currently said to be in production include Green Lantern Corps, a reboot that'll focus on Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart; a whole new Suicide Squad film helmed by Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn; Matt Reeves' Batman reboot sans Ben Affleck; and Supergirl herself is even said to be replacing the Man of Steel for the time being.

Add to that Ava DuVernay's New Gods, which will be an adaptation of Jack Kirby's cosmic Fourth World saga, and you have a slate that differs drastically to the one WB announced years ago, which included the likes of Nightwing, Deadshot and Justice League Dark.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.