Charles Roven Says DCEU “Too Much for One Person”

Charles Roven, longtime producer for films based on DC Comics properties, explains that his part will be downplayed going forward, as the entire DC Extended Universe is simply too much for one person to handle.

Roven was a producer for Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy, which took off with Batman Begins back in 2005; since then, he has worked on nearly every film of a DC Comics property, including the most recent one, last year’s Justice League. These have received a wide range of critical and audience reactions, but one cannot deny that most of the recent entries have been more divisive than the older ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc0os6bK0BA

Roven was planned to be a sort of overseer of all the upcoming films in the franchise, but now that has apparently changed. In recent weeks, Warner Bros. has undergone several moves to try and course correct its issues with the franchise, and the newest one will have Roven only be a producer on sequels to movies that he has already produced.

He discussed this development in a Q&A session with Deadline, wherein he ostensibly seemed to understand the decision. He says that while he was working on each film in recent years, it became very clear that in order to be a producer on those movies in the timeline that Warner Bros. wanted, it was way too big a job for one producer to oversee.”

While one cannot fault Roven for finding the task overwhelming, fans may raise their eyebrows at the implication that it cannot be done—the Marvel Cinematic Universe is well-known for being led by Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios and executive producer for all of its 17 movies so far.

That said, the DCEU was always meant to be less strictly controlled than its rival, with more autonomy given to individual directors—something which DCEU fans may consider a plus, but which others argue has helped make the franchise less coherent and thus not as successful.

Conversely, another factor is that, while Marvel Studios is its own separate entity within Disney, DC Comics films are done directly by Warner Bros., meaning that while it does not have one overriding director, it may have too many cooks spoiling the broth. Hopefully the studio will be able to find the right balance for their faltering franchise soon.