It looks like Warner Bros. Discovery may have found the man to lead its DC Films and TV divisions, as the process of implementing David Zaslav's "10-year plan" begins.
We recently learned that the studio was searching for a "Kevin Feige-type" to take charge of a DC brand "reset," and THR reports that Dan Lin, the executive-turned-producer behind major hits such as the live-action Aladdin film, The Lego Movie, and It Parts 1 and 2, is in talks to take the role of DC chief.
Should he land the gig (negotiations are still underway), Lin would oversee both the film and television arms, reporting directly Zaslav.
According to the trade, "the proposed structure would bypass three separate division heads — Warner Bros. Pictures’ heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, HBO/HBO Max chief Casey Bloys, and Warner Bros. TV chair Channing Dungey — and put control of DC in the hands of one person."
As previously reported, current Head of DC Films, Walter Hamada, would transition out of the role.
Lin comes on board at a shaky time for WBD. The cancellation of Batgirl, the animated Batman: Caped Crusader series and several other projects; the laying off of multiple HBO Max execs, and Zaslav's refusal to publicly address The Flash star Ezra Miller's criminal behaviour have not gone over very well, to say the least.
More recently, we learned that "funeral screenings" of the scrapped Batgirl movie were being held, and there was even talk of Zaslav going so far as to physically destroy the footage as a way to demonstrate to the IRS that there will never be any revenue from the project (you can read Ivory Aquino's response here).
With any luck, Lin's hiring will go some way towards turning things around and giving the DCEU (or whatever it winds up being referred to) some much-needed structure while also doing what he can to shine a more positive light on the studio.