Former DC Boss On Geoff Johns: ‘He’s No Buddy Of Mine’

Joaquin Phoenix as Joker

It seems that there are three things inevitable in life, death, taxes, and drama surrounding DC movies. There's never been any shortage of drama when it comes to DC and Warner Bros. recent films, and now there's a fresh batch of it all following comments on Twitter from the former President of DC Entertainment directed toward her former Chief Creative Officer.

Diane Nelson was the President of DC Entertainment from 2009 until 2018, and while she's no longer associated with DC, she now works for startup streaming service Quibi, Nelson is clearly still interested in what is happening on that side of the fence.

Diane Nelson recently shared an article on Twitter that came to the defense of the level of violence seen in the upcoming movie Joker with Joaquin Phoenix. This resulted in a comment criticizing Nelson for apparently coming to the defense of Joker while allegedly not doing the same for Zack Snyder's Justice League. When another comment accused Nelson, of working with "her buddy," former DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns to intentionally damage Snyder's work, Nelson apparently set the record straight regarding their relationship.

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It's more than a little surprising that coming up two years after the release of the movie. Everything seems to come back to Justice League. The movie's supporters are nothing if not dedicated. Both Geoff Johns and Diane Nelson have been the target of online vitriol in that time and certainly it doesn't look like that will be stopping any time soon.

In a follow up comment, Diane Nelson's mindset becomes a bit more clear. She was clearly only trying to show support for a single film, and wasn't looking to get a separate discussion started up again. Nelson has moved on from her days at DC and says she "cares nothing about" the topic or the people that were brought up in response to her post.

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Neither Diane Nelson or Geoff Johns currently work for Warner Bros. or DC, though Johns started his own production company to work with WB on DC film projects. Whatever may have been going on in the past is ultimately unimportant. These two don't work together anymore so if it turns out they don't care for each other or don't work well together, it no longer matters. The people, and the DC movies, are moving forward.

Joker will be the next big DC movie release, and the movie is certainly a step in a new direction for comic book movies. The film isn't even tangentially related to any of DC's other recent films, and the movie is being included in the end of year awards season buzz. We could see a comic book movie nominated for best Picture at the Oscars two years in a row.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.