The merger of Warner Bros. with Discovery (and the corresponding separation of the former from AT&T) led to the appointment of David Zaslav as the leader of Warner Bros. Discovery. The first thing he did then was to reveal his purpose of finding a Kevin Feig own to bring order to the DC universe (as well as develop more movies style joker). This implied, among other things, that Walter Hamada it would eventually be departed from DC Films. Hamada came to command in 2018, after the debacle of League of Justiceand throughout his career he had great box office successes such as Aquaman, TheBatman and the cited Joker.Hamada also adjusted to AT&T’s indications in order to strengthen streaming, subscribing to the hybrid model that combined movie theaters and HBO Max in a pandemic, and developing productions such as The peacemakerspin-off of the suicide squad. His management has never been poorly valued, but unfortunately it was marked by the controversy of the Justice League reshoots, insofar as the complaints of Ray Fisher towards Joss Whedon (and towards Hamada himself, accused of protecting the abuses of the producer Geoff Johns) and the internal investigation that Warner had to initiate. From which Hamada was exonerated, but his figure had been called into question, and according to The Hollywood Reporter Zaslav could have already found someone to replace him. This is Dan Lin, a highly respected Hollywood executive. If the signing is confirmed, Lin would be the supervisor of both the DC film division and the television division, answering directly to Zaslav and being independent of names such as CaseyBloys (from HBO and HBO Max), the duo Michael DeLuca/Pam Abdy (Warner Bros. Pictures) or Channing Dungey (Warner Bros.TV). Variety points out, however, that Zaslav’s claim to become president of DC has a notable handicap: Lin has his own production company, Rideback, and this is already linked to other studios such as Universal or Disney, for which he develops today. the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch.

If Lin takes the lead at DC Films, Rideback would have to somehow fit into the Warner Bros. organization chart, and no one is quite sure how to do it. Beyond the difficulties, the name of Lin has been the one that has received the most support after a few intense months in which Zaslav was looking for someone to replace Hamada, testing Amy Pascal oa Greg Berlanti (responsible for several successful superhero series on The CW). Lin has been imposed on them from the support of Alan Horn, former Disney chairman who was recently brought on by Warner in an advisory capacity. Decades earlier, in the 1980s, Horn had already served as president of the studio, which was when he crossed paths with Lin. Horn has endorsed Lin based on this previous collaboration, which led to several promotions. In 2008 Lin was encouraged to produce independently, promoting projects such as 10,000 BC of Roland Emmerich either infiltrators of Martin Scorsese. It was then that he had a traumatic experience with DC, getting involved in the famous project of League of Justice who headed George Miller, and that ended up aborted. Despite this, Lin is known for his craft and intelligence in Hollywood, and has managed to build a great career for himself afterwards.

In this way, Lin has produced the remake of Aladdin for Disney and the diptych Item for Warner. What makes him, above all, a great candidate in Zaslav’s eyes is the varied curriculum that he boasts: Lin has alternated great blockbusters with Oscar-winning films (he was behind the two popes), has experience in franchising (he has produced the saga of Sherlock Holmes of Robert Downey Jr. Y The LEGO Movie) and has also succeeded on television, being behind the series lethal weaponthe reboot of Walker Texas Rangerand currently preparing with Rideback the live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender that would see the light on Netflix. His profile, then, is highly coveted, and confirming that he is the new leader of DC Films could somewhat nuance the bad image that both Warner and Zaslav are earning these days (with the cancellation of batgirl, the delay of releases and the removal of content from HBO Max). In the next few days we will see if the signing is completed. Do you want to be up to date with all the latest movies and series? Sign up for our newsletter.