DC Films Exec Geoff Johns Admits ‘Suicide Squad’ “Didn’t Work Narratively,” Reveals Writing Started On ‘Wonder Woman 2’

Sometimes, all anybody wants to hear a studio executive say is that they got something wrong, rather than trying to blame critics, or saying the film was made for fans only. Even DC Films‘ most ardent supporters would probably concede that last summer’s “Suicide Squad” was far from perfect. While it hauled in a bunch of money, the movie was otherwise a mess, a mash-up of competing visions from director David Ayer, and studio suits at Warner Bros., and you could really see the seams showing. Now, DC Films honcho Geoff Johns is admitting that the film just didn’t work.

“There are lessons from every movie. You would be silly not to analyze how a movie was received — what went right and what went wrong on the making of a movie. On ‘Suicide Squad,’ the movie did incredibly well commercially. It didn’t work narratively,” he told Variety. “You had some great casting and some great characterizations, but where the story fell down was on narrative, on plot. We could do better. ‘Batman v. Superman’ was tonally dark. People didn’t respond to that.”

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It’s a frank admission from the executive, who has beat the drum that, going forward, the franchise is going to have “heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism at the base.” One can only imagine that Johns’ vision is being proven by the box office numbers for “Wonder Woman,” and indeed, work is beginning on the sequel.

“Patty and I are writing the treatment right now. The goal is to make another great ‘Wonder Woman’ film. I had a blast making it with Patty the first time. We’ve got a cool idea for the second one,” he teased.

So, the future is looking brighter for DC Films, and part of that hope lies on the shoulders of Joss Whedon, who is doing the reshoots/additional filming on “Justice League,” is lined up to direct “Batgirl,” and if Johns has his way, will be a key part of the franchise.

“He’s a big part [of the DCEU] already. We love him. He’s a great partner, collaborator; we want him to be ensconced. We bring people by, have general meetings and talk about comics and their favorite superhero movies. With Joss, he saw the master board, and he saw a ‘Batgirl’ title and he said, ‘You guys seriously want to do Batgirl?’ And we said, ‘Absolutely.’ He said, ‘That’s my jam,’ ” he said.

So it seems the DC Films ship is being reoriented to smoother waters, and time will tell if they can find their footing, but certainly, they’re giving it a heroic effort.