Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told investors earlier this month that his grand vision to revitalize the company included finding a new Kevin Feige type to lead its embattled DC Films division to a new era of Marvel Studios-like success. While nothing’s been finalized yet, it seems as if the studio’s found its pick in longtime producer Dan Lin.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dan Lin — the producer behind The Lego Movie, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender series — is the top contender to replace Walter Hamada as the new head of DC Films as part of a larger corporate restructuring that would streamline the company’s internal hierarchy. Post-restructuring, a single executive — potentially Lin — will be in charge of the studio’s film and TV projects and report directly to Zaslav.
Under Hamada’s leadership, DC Films put out a variety of features to varying (read: inconsistent) degrees of financial and critical success and always seemed as if its main priority was trying to catch up to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Standout DC films like Todd Phillips’ Joker and Matt Reeves’ The Batman both proved Warner Bros. didn’t necessarily need a tightly interconnected universe of programs to make its films based on comic books work. But the success of those movies — and the way Warner Bros. is now banking on characters like Black Adam to save the DCEU — has also been easy to interpret as the studio not really having a solid game plan as it looks to the future.
Though Lin reportedly wasn’t being considered to take over DC Films until somewhat recently, his producing credits in both the worlds of television and film very much align with the role that Warner Bros. Discovery’s looking for the studio’s new executive to play. After years of trying to make the DCEU pop with movies and shows that only kinda sorta acknowledged one another when it was convenient, going all-in on the creation of a singular universe could be just what Warner Bros. Discovery needs, and Lin might be the person to bring it all together.