Geoff Johns will be stepping down as Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment to focus on developing new creative projects for Warner Bros Studios. Jim Lee will take over as CCO for DC Entertainment but will continue as co-publisher.
Warner Bros and DC Entertainment have made a huge announcement this morning by revealing that Geoff Johns, well known by the DC community as a prolific writer and producer across all kinds of mediums, will be working for the studio as a writer and producer. Johns will be launching Mad Ghost Productions, a new production company that will focus on developing new projects for the studio.
Hollywood Reporter is reporting that one of Johns’ first tasks will be writing the Green Lantern Corps screenplay (he had written one draft for the movie in 2011 alongside David Goyer) on top of already penning the script for Wonder Woman 84, the sequel to the first Wonder Woman film due next year. Johns also serves as producer for WW84 as well as this year’s only DC Films offering Aquaman (due out in December).
Johns had this to day about the announcement:
“I took on a role at DCE because I love the characters and this universe more than anything. But, I want to spend my days writing and on set. I’m thrilled to get back to a more hands-on creative role. It’s a dream job on dream projects, reaching even deeper into DC’s vast pantheon of characters.”
Another aspect to this story that should make fans happy is how Johns will basically leaving behind the boardroom and executive roles for more creative ones. As an executive, Johns has fulfilled his duties diligently but now will be able to focus on exclusively creative projects. Johns has developed projects for DC Films, assisted in television development (most notably CW’s The Flash), and writing some of DC biggest comic book events (Doomsday Clock).
As for Jim Lee, he will now serve as COO but will continue to serve as co-publisher alongside Dan Didio, a position he has been serving in since 2010. Didio and Lee released a quick statement about the Johns announcement:
“Geoff is one of DC Comics’ most prolific writers, and we can’t wait to see what he does next now that he will be dedicating 100 percent of his time to telling the best DC stories possible across all media.”
