Director and comic-book guy Kevin Smith thinks Warner Bros. has finally figured out what fans want with the upcoming “Justice League.”
Smith, who has written for both Marvel and DC and is enough of a fan to name his daughter after “Batman” villain Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie in “Suicide Squad,”) says Warner Bros. seems to be listening to fanboy feedback and course correcting.
“The audience that pays to see these things are like, ‘There’s a certain set of standards that we want when we come see these superhero movies, and, yes, most of those standards have been set for us by Marvel… regardless, this is what we want in our superhero movies. We don’t want doom and gloom,” he said in an interview with Canoe.
Both DC Comics-based films this summer, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad,” had huge opening weekends at the box office only to fall off dramatically in their second weeks.
Smith said fans want heroes to have chemistry, and that the first look at “Justice League” during last month’s San Diego Comic Con offered a step in the right direction.
“We want them to like each other. We want them to have an interplay,” Smith said. “It looks like (Warner Bros. and DC Comics) heard that loud and clear and everything that was missing or perceived to be missing from ‘Batman v Superman’ seems like it’s in full display on ‘Justice League,’ so I’m on board. I was already on board, but I’m very happy to see that they’re taking that direction.”
Smith spoke while promoting his new AMC talk show “Geeking Out” with Greg Grunberg. It airs on Sundays at midnight on AMC.