Does anyone know why Diane Nelson left DC?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Since Jenette Khan became publisher of DC Comics decades ago, there's been a bit of tradition of women being in charge of a company that ironically produces mostly male power fantasies. Currently, Pam Lifford is the President of DC Entertainment, but, before her was Diane Nelson, who oversaw DC's transition to DC Entertainment. Nelson took a leave of absence in 2018, then resigned shortly afterwards.

I don't remember ever hearing anything about why Nelson left. It never sounded like she was forced out or there was anything scandalous about her departure. At the time, I just assumed it was a private matter, like a family or health related issue or she just didn't enjoy the stress of her corporate responsibilities anymore and had made more than enough money to retire early.

However, her recent comment about Geoff Johns not being a buddy of hers makes me think there was more to the story than I had previously assumed. There's plenty of clickbait out there wildly speculating on what that comment meant, but it seems like there's no actual information out there of why someone as media savy as Nelson would say something so potentially combustive as that publicly. Everything I'd ever heard about Johns & Nelson was that they were very close, and she was quite protective of him.

Does anyone have any idea what this is about?

[Vampire Savior]

I don't know, because I wasn't at any WB meeting where this was discussed, but I highly doubt she resigned because she wanted to. One way or another, I'm sure she was pushed down. Failing to meet expectations in some fashion is the likely reason for that to happen. Oftentimes, the most obvious answer is the right one. I don't think it's at all coincidence that both she and Geoff Johns lost their corporate seats at DC at around the same time. I'm guessing the disastrous Justice League movie had something to do with this, because after that ran its course is about when those two left, if I recall correctly.

[Darkcrusade25]

JL affected both of them.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Since Jenette Khan became publisher of DC Comics decades ago, there's been a bit of tradition of women being in charge of a company that ironically produces mostly male power fantasies. Currently, Pam Lifford is the President of DC Entertainment, but, before her was Diane Nelson, who oversaw DC's transition to DC Entertainment. Nelson took a leave of absence in 2018, then resigned shortly afterwards.

I don't remember ever hearing anything about why Nelson left. It never sounded like she was forced out or there was anything scandalous about her departure. At the time, I just assumed it was a private matter, like a family or health related issue or she just didn't enjoy the stress of her corporate responsibilities anymore and had made more than enough money to retire early.

However, her recent comment about Geoff Johns not being a buddy of hers makes me think there was more to the story than I had previously assumed. There's plenty of clickbait out there wildly speculating on what that comment meant, but it seems like there's no actual information out there of why someone as media savy as Nelson would say something so potentially combustive as that publicly. Everything I'd ever heard about Johns & Nelson was that they were very close, and she was quite protective of him.

Does anyone have any idea what this is about?

Well, about why she left, God only knows, but

- She gained her position because she was a protegeé of Jeff Robinov, who everyone believed would eventually be in charge of WB.
- The position that Robinov was assumed to take was then taken by Kevin Tsujihara, who we know was close to Paul Levitz.
- After this point, we got a redundancy on executives. Zack Snyder, as Nelson, was in Robinov's favor. OTOH, Geoff Johns probably has a vision more aligned with Levitz's and, as a consequence, Tsujihara's.
- Considering her leave of absence (which I was took as "let's wait for her contract to expire before letting her go), I'd say that she probably lost an executive tug of war with Geoff Johns. Who ten, having spent an editorial tug of war with Dan Didio, decided to also leave the company after the AT&T buy-out.

So, then, there.

[kjn]

I sat down to check the sources on this, and found that Diane Nelson has deleted her twitter account. I guess this story blew up far more than she anticipated, but in which way I have no idea.

BohemiaDrinker's speculations look plausible. No idea if it's correct, but plausible. But the pattern sure doesn't look good for the upper management of DC and their relation to WB.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

And now Kevin Tsujihara, who refused to delay Justice League to give them time to actually complete the film in addition to insisting that the entire thing be no longer than 2 hours, has also stepped down thanks to his own shenanigans with actresses. Can't say I'll miss his guiding hand behind Warner's creative decisions, particularly after how badly WB has fumbled the DC Films and the Harry Potter franchise, which Nelson played such a big part of in its heyday.

I had heard about the whole Robinov/Tsujihara thing, but I didn't know that may have played a role in Nelson's departure, or Levitz's still being a player at all following his retirement as a corporate executive.

[kjn]

Tsujihara stepped down in March, so it's not really recent news.

I sure hope WB can move away from that culture of in-fighting and conspiracy at the executive level that seems to have dominated them for quite some time. It sure hasn't been good for any part of DC.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Tsujihara stepped down in March, so it's not really recent news.

I sure hope WB can move away from that culture of in-fighting and conspiracy at the executive level that seems to have dominated them for quite some time. It sure hasn't been good for any part of DC.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that Tsujihara getting MeToo-ed was something that just happened. Just pointing to his downfall as yet another example of how all the corporate nonsense at Warner Bros seems much worse than at the other studios right now.

I am sure Disney is also a hornet's nest, but their corporate intrigue doesn't seem to be hurting them creatively. Hell, they even managed to course correct after the whole James Gunn fiasco

[Bruce Wayne]

That's how Disney has remained successful while Sony and WB are lurching from one disaster to another.

It seems like she (and Johns) possibly took the fall for the Justice League movie.