Did Zack Snyder’s Justice League Derail Ava DuVernay’s New Gods?

When Warner Bros. introduced again in 2018 that Ava DuVernay had signed on to direct a New Gods movie penned by comedian guide author Tom King, the information was intriguing—if just for the promise of the artistic staff doubtlessly bringing the likes of Mister Miracle, Big Barda, and Granny Goodness to the silver display. While it first appeared as if New Gods was coming collectively within the time after Warner Bros.’ preliminary announcement, the studio modified its tune earlier this 12 months.

New Gods wouldn’t have been the primary time the DCEU’s focus turned to Apokolips, however it might need spent extra time digging into inhabitants aside from Darkseid, who was meant to be featured in 2017’s Justice League however was changed by Steppenwolf in Joss Whedon’s model. When WB took New Gods and James Wan’s The Trench (which was truly a secret Black Manta undertaking) off its manufacturing slate, it appeared doable that the choice was partially pushed by Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the long-rumored director’s reduce, the place Darkseid did play a big position.

From the sound of current feedback DuVernay’s made about what went down with New Gods, which will have been the case. During an interview on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM present final week, DuVernay defined how, after signing onto her overall development deal with Warner Bros. in 2018, she instantly started wanting into the studio’s catalog of DC Comics IP, and recognized the New Gods as characters she was fascinated by. “I loved New Gods, which is the project that got axed,” DuVernay stated. “The studio decided that they did not want to pursue a certain part of that comic world, based on some things that were going on with another film in that world.”

According to DuVernay, she wasn’t even in a position to totally end engaged on New Gods’ script with King earlier than Warner pulled the plug, and the director’s reference to “another film in that world” seems to be about Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the one different current movie undertaking spotlighting DC’s Fourth World characters. A considerably bigger quantity of display time for Darkseid was one of many main promoting factors of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and whereas the director’s reduce was far much less in sync with a few of WB’s different current DCEU initiatives, the studio’s flirtations with a multiverse have left open the potential for it to play a task within the cinematic universe’s future.

While extra of the Snyderverse’s tackle Darkseid present alongside DuVernay’s might need difficult audiences’ understanding of the Fourth World to a sure extent, Warner Bros. has not too long ago gambled on a number of iterations of characters just like the Joker and Batman being field workplace attracts. It’s attention-grabbing to think about whether or not the powers that be felt that attempting to adapt traditional Jack Kirby comics right into a live-action movie could be too tough, or if the studio may as an alternative be merely ready to introduce that lore to a wider viewers.

What’s going to be actually attention-grabbing to see going ahead is what finally ends up changing into of DuVernay and co-executive producer Jill Blankenship’s upcoming adaptation of Naomi for the CW. As new a personality as Naomi is, it wouldn’t be too shocking if concepts acquainted to New Gods followers pop up within the sequence, significantly given DuVernay’s involvement.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max, and Naomi premieres on the CW someday in 2022.

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