The DC Extended Universe was infamously plagued by reactionary responses by Warner Bros. executives following the poor reception of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice among critics and audiences, though their meddling history actually dates back to much further in time.
- Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the unfortunate first victim of this, with the original 3-hour film being cut down to 2 1/2 hours, due to the studio's apprehension about the commercial success and the potential R Rating. This ironically led to several significant scenes being cut out of the film, partially contributing to its mixed to bad reception from critics.
- Suicide Squad (2016) suffered big time from executive meddling. In a lengthy report from The Hollywood Reporter
, with insider information provides from several sources who worked closely on the film, there were several major issues before, during and after the production of the movie:- CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced Suicide Squad in October 2014, and it was "a sprint from the start" to meet its August 2016 release date. "[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went." And pushing the release date back was not an option, since Warner Bros. already had big deals signed with companies like Samsung and other merchandise partners.
- Warner Bros. hired David Ayer to direct the movie, even though he had no prior experience making a big, CGI-filled blockbuster. Seasoned directors are expensive, meaning studios turn to those with less experience, relying on instinct that they will be up to the job.
- Warner Bros. executives, who had been nervous about Suicide Squad since the day it was announced, grew even more nervous after the negative response to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. "Kevin was really pissed about damage to the brand," according to one executive close to the studio.
- And then came the competing cuts. Warner Bros. felt that the movie didn’t deliver the fun, edgy tone that the "Bohemian Rhapsody" trailer captured. So while David Ayer continued to work on his version of the movie, Warner Bros. began working on another with help from Trailer Park, the company that had made the trailer. Multiple editors worked on Suicide Squad, though only John Gilroy is credited. Although, according to a source who worked on the movie, he left by the end of the process and that the final editor was Michael Tronick.
- In May, David Ayer’s darker version of the movie, and Warner Bros.’s lighter, more fun version were screened for test audiences. Ayer agreed to this, and they gathered all of the feedback and tried to reach a middle ground. In order to get the movie to that point though, millions of dollars were needed for reshoots.
- There was also a lot of “panic and ego” involved, instead of calmly trying to address the tone issues. Things got so intense, that Ayer fired his long-time agent, hired a new one, but then decided to go back to his old one just a day later. “He was under a lot — a lot — of pressure,” according to one source.
- Justice League suffered immensely from studio interference after the disastrous critical and audience reception to Batman v Superman, to the point of not being recognizable as a Zack Snyder film.
- After some internal debate, Warner Bros. decided to keep on Snyder as they feared that firing him would be seen as a sign of weakness. However, Snyder was kept on a tighter leash.
- The original Justice League script by screenwriter Chris Terrio on a story by Snyder was intended to have a dystopian future where most of Earth's heroes had been killed and Superman had turned evil. However, the executives vetoed this plan following the negative reception to Batman v Superman's dark tone, so Snyder started over with screenwriter Chris Terrio on a different shooting script.
- After Snyder's daughter died during post-production, he stepped away from the film. Joss Whedon was brought up by executives to finish up the project. Whedon was then ordered by them to write and direct several reshoots that altered the film's original tone and plot. Some changes included changing the color palette, removing several of the serious plot points and character moments, and adding more jokes in line with Whedon's previous works.
- Given the mid-production changes, the film had to be delayed so that additional time could be spent on polishing the effects and properly editing the film. However, Warner Bros. execs refused to change the release date and forced the studio to stick to its original November 2017 release date.
- Ultimately, the film wasn't nearly as successful as hoped, due to the mixed reception, the marketing troubles of having to exclude Superman on all advertising, and the behind-the-scenes issues. The film itself had many clear signs of interference from the inconsistent tone to the poor special effects.
- After nearly three years of speculation and fan campaigns to release it, a director's cut, Zack Snyder's Justice League, was announced for release on HBO Max in 2021. Snyder was given a budget to finish the film as close to his original vision as he could, though there was still executive interference, such as a veto on a John Stewart scene he wanted to add, and the part of the Final Battle where Flash goes back in time to save the League and the Earth from annihilation was almost cancelled again due to The Flash being based off the speedster superhero's ability to Time Travel / hop The Multiverse and some executive wanting the latter film to use those powers first.
- In general, much of the meddling stemmed from disagreements over the direction of the DCEU given how Snyder started out the de facto architect of the franchise. The studio wanted the DCEU to be a lighthearted Modular Franchise similar to that of the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe, thereby allowing it to reach a wide audience. Snyder, however, wanted to make a 5 Epic Movie arc that adhered to his own Darker and Edgier interpretation, while leaving said films open-ended for other directors to follow when making their own (such as Patty Jenkins with Wonder Woman — he also collaborated with her on the project). This difference in creative visions, coupled with his own personal family troubles, led to Snyder leaving directing duties in the franchise, and his original 5-movie plan getting scrapped.
- To avoid further studio interference, the DC Films division was overhauled with new management that led to producer Walter Hamada becoming its president. As Hamada had previously worked with directors James Wan and David F. Sandberg on The Conjuring Universe, neither Aquaman (2018) nor SHAZAM! (2019) experienced the behind-the-scenes shenanigans and abrupt production changes that afflicted the other DCEU movies.
- The above shuffle hasn't stopped studio interferences as some filmmakers like Patty Jenkins or Cathy Yan said in interviews. The (often criticized) third act of Wonder Woman was studio-mandated according to Jenkins, and Birds of Prey was similarly tampered with.
- Geoff Johns also enforced the presence of Black Manta (a favorite of his) in Aquaman against James Wan's intent to use Orm only. None of these films generated as much controversy as the Snyder films and Suicide Squad, so they're unlikely to result in director's cuts.
- The directors of the since-shelved Batgirl film, Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, have gone on records stating that they themselves were confused by Warner Bros. making them use Michael Keaton's Batman and J. K. Simmons' Commissioner Gordon in the same film despite coming from completely different continuities (this was long before The Flash was released, and even it was altered to close the door on more Keaton Batman ultimately). When they reached out for clarification, they were only told "Don't worry about it. We got a plan." This became even worse when the newly minted Warner Bros. Discovery decided to outright cancel the movie's release, despite being in the final stages of post production, with new conglomerate head David Zaslav stating that the company wanted to focus on bigger budgeted and more theatrical movies instead of burning money in streaming films. This also became more shocking when it was revealed that the studio treated its cancellation as a tax writeoff.
