This past week, superhero fans and geek enthusiasts were given the middle finger by WBD with one of the most devastating and surprising cancelled comic book movies. The loud thud we all heard recently was Leslie Grace’s chance to be Batgirl imploding with no warning whatsoever.
Since acquiring the keys to the Warner Bros. Discovery kingdom, King Zaslav has been on a $3 billion cost-cutting mission—to please the stockholders. Exhale, nerds. His top priority has nothing to do with us.
Fortunately, one of the chief objectives on his mind does. That’s transforming DC Comics’ film franchise into something that mildly resembles the Mount Everest of entertainment known as Marvel Studios. He wants to master plan the next few years and, hopefully, create a connected multiverse. Again, like Marvel Studio has done for close to two decades.
Batgirl was cancelled, and Warner Bros. decided to light $90 million on fire and watched it smolder into ash, disappointment, and two effin’ years of wasted time. Besides the resounding question of “What in the purple and yellow hell are they doing at WBD,” this geek blogger started thinking about what other CBMs have been hyped, lauded, and even marketed—and then, tragically died.
Along with the hopes and dreams of fans everywhere, it’s hoped movie studios that crushed our little dork spirits got a monstrous amount of guilt. And a generous shopping warehouse dose of negative mojo. C’mon. A guy can dream, right?
Here are the Top 10 cancelled comic book movies we never saw.
HM. Ava DuVernay’s New Gods
Why is this horrendous instance an “honorable mention?” Because we ended up getting Darkseid in ZSJL. However, that doesn’t mean this one didn’t have the pain associated with passing a kidney stone. This saga was going to be set in the Snyderverse as a take on Darkseid and the Female Furies. This idea was killed off faster than the Black guy in a horror movie–both are a shame and inevitable.
While Ava was writing with Tom King, whom she recruited, Warner Bros. stepped on a pile of horse turds. The leftover waft in the air was cancelled ideas like Jack Kirby‘s Fourth World opus and James Wan‘s The Trench because the obligatory “didn’t fit within the vision of the DCEU.” Granted, there never was a vision, so the fans were straight-up robbed of an amazing experience. Ava would have rocked Big Barda! Talk about “Girl Power.”
10. James Cameron’s Spider-Man
From the mind who brought us T2, Aliens, Avatar, True Lies, and Titanic comes one hellacious idea — what if James Cameron made Spider-Man? Well, that almost happened. In 1993, James Cameron worked on a script to bring the friendly neighborhood one to reality. The villains would have been Electro and Sandman, and it would have “a somewhat adult and action-heavy spin.”
That guy once said his version of Spider-Man was “the greatest movie I never made.” And his choice for Peter Parker? Leonardo DiCaprio. As legend has it, Cameron was pre-occupied with Arnold Schwarzenegger and True Lies (a truly underrated action film). Cameron went on to film Titanic because Columbia Pictures wanted to argue over who owned the script. Legal troubles ensued. Cameron gave up the script. And the rest was history. Pity.
9. Tim Burton’s Superman Lives
Let’s be clear: Nicolas Cage looks like a beat, broke-ass cosplayer trying to impress a girl at Comic-Con. Nonetheless, Nic’s disheveled version of Superman meets Nirvana was almost a thing, thanks to Tim Burton. Following the abysmal Superman IV: Quest for Peace, people gave up on the whole Kryptonian refugee thing. Yet, Tim Burton read “The Death of Superman” in 1992 and got inspired.
Kevin Smith adapted the comic for Burton, and Burton secured Nic Cage to be the hipster of steel. If you want to know what happened, you’re not alone. This is a question that millions wondered about, which is why there is a documentary created to track that resolution! So, if you have some time to burn, check out The Death of ‘Superman Lives’: What Happened? It’s more interesting than you’d think.
P.S. That link is the full movie on YouTube. Enjoy.
8. Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man
Imagine the visual stelo of Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Scot Pilgrim vs. The World) with the uncertainty and literal minutia of Ant-Man. For eight years, we heard Wright would bring an uncanny vision of the Quantum Realm. Then, in 2014, the ubiquitous Hollywood excuse for “I hate that rotten @#$%” called “Irreconcilable Differences” popped up, ending the hopes of Wright and Marvel Studios.
Peyton Reed did a respectable job with Ant-Man. The humor and serious tones were well-balanced. But there was that nagging voice in the back of the minds of Wright’s fans saying, “Imagine what he could have done with this story.” He did cast Paul Rudd, so there’s that. Sigh.
7. James Wan’s Swamp Thing
You’re already getting heated thinking about this one, huh? Remember the ill-fated “DC Universe” app? This is their legacy! The creator of the Conjuring universe was on his way to making the first-ever CBM horror series. It was baked, in the can, ready to impress, and then…vanishing like a fart in the wind! After one measly airing, Warner Bros. kills the entire series. Then, eventually, the entire app.
Even the usually reserved James Wan took to Instagram because he didn’t “really know or understand why Swamp Thing was cancelled.” From 13 episodes to 10 to gone. David Zaslav, if there is an ounce of business expertise in that down comforter vest-wearing haunch of yours, keep Warner Bros. executives away from all things DC moving forward. This sucked!
6. George Miller’s Justice League Mortal
Of all the Top 10 cancelled comic book movies, this is the one that most resembles Batgirl. George Miller is a name few people in the geckaphile community don’t know. He had a developed screenplay and an entire ensemble cast–all committed and ready to go. Then, the unthinkable–the script leaked. Of course, Miller went berserk, but not half as much as when he found out DC Comics and Warner Bros. pulled the plug on the entire project.
The script got mixed reactions, and the dunderheads at WB determined that was the testing group. It was hated, so George had to go. Fine, he’ll go ahead and direct one of the most fantastic action movies made in this generation, Mad Max: Fury Road. Check out the cast:
- Armie Hammer as Bruce Wayne/Batman
- Megan Gale as Diana of Themyscira/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
- D.J. Cotrona as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
- Adam Brody as Barry Allen/The Flash
- Hugh Keays-Byrne as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter
- Teresa Palmer as Talia
- Zoe Kazan as Iris Allen
- Santiago Cabrera as Arthur Curry/Aquaman
- Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord
- Common as John Stewart/Green Lantern
- Anton Yelchin as Wally West/The Flash
And Warner Bros. couldn’t take a chance on that cast or that director. Foolishness! No wonder it took another decade for someone to attempt Justice League, and we all know how that turned out.
5. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4
Sam Raimi‘s name is synonymous with horror, but he also helped usher in the CBM genre with his Spider-Man trilogy. Spider-Man 2 is considered one of the best CBMs of all time. Raimi had an awful dismount with the third movie, but he hoped he could make up for that effort with Spider-Man 4. It was rumored and shooed away like a fly on a picnic chicken salad.
Raimi already had ideas like Peter and MJ getting hitched, Vulture disturbing everything, and naturally, Bruce Campbell would be in there somewhere. Get this: It was Raimi’s fault this didn’t happen. It was Sony Pictures acting as a taskmaster, so Raimi left–followed by Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. Why can’t non-comic fans get the crap out of the way? Pathetic.
4. Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One
If someone is going to delve into the catacombs with Batman, a twisted imagination should be necessary. One stellar director who qualifies is Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Mother). Yes, that guy has a section of this list about the Top 10 cancelled comic book movies. In 1997, the world’s greatest detective inspired one of the worst CBMs, Batman and Robin. Yes, “Batnipples.”
Frank Miller’s origin story, Batman: Year One, captured the attention of many comic enthusiasts. And so, the idea of a movie. That’s when Warner Bros. quickly called Aronofsky for a job. His name was top-of-mind following Pi. Aronofsky wanted to make an R-rated Batman with a future Joker, Joaquin Phoenix, as Bruce Wayne. It took until 2002 when Warner Bros. decided they didn’t like the director’s ideas. Three years later, they met Christopher Nolan. Case closed.
3. David S. Goyer’s X-Men Origins: Magneto
Tears began flooding my keyboard with this on a list of the Top 10 cancelled comic book movies. Imagine what this would have looked like on the screen. Dope! The turd of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and that Josh Trank LSD trip Fan4astic-ish vision of Deadpool didn’t help. While Hugh Jackman will always be known as the best casting among X-Men, Michael Fassbender is a close second considered by many fans.
The guy was visceral and vexed in that role. He was awesome. Of course, we got a taste of his origin in X-Men: First Class, but that character (and that actor) deserved much more. Put the writing prowess of David S. Goyer in a script, place that into Fassbender’s capable hands, and that movie would have been remarkable. (The dude wrote The Dark Knight. That’s all his resume has to say.)
2. Batfleck’s The Batman
Ben Affleck‘s The Batman film took the Internet by storm when the “leaked” footage of Joe Manganiello‘s Deathstroke struck a chord. It was awesome! It was momentous! It was…crap because it never happened! Although we hear Batfleck is back in The Flash, there is little certainty that this version of The Batman will ever be seen.
No big deal, Warner Bros. That calamitous oversight ruins dreams of seeing Deathstroke on the screen and the ushering of the diabolical Legion of Doom. That’s all. No shade to Matt Reeves’ triumph, but damn. If any shot at this movie is coming, we’re talking $1 billion. Yeah, this one hurts.
1. Guillermo del Toro’s Justice League Dark
GDT’s interest in developing Justice League Dark may not be the first on a Top 10 list for cancelled comic book movies. Objectively, this is the only answer because of what this could have meant to an entire franchise. Guillermo del Toro has one of Hollywood’s most sardonic and hallucinogenic minds. Go watch The Shape of Water or Pan’s Labyrinth and holler back.
This was comic book-matchmaking at its finest. You have GDT spending more than a year on a script for the anti-hero group of the shadows. Yet, what else do you think happened? Warner Bros.’ starched suits got in the damn way, put the script under immense scrutiny, and del Toro bounced–never to return. Think about that. No one, outside of a few uniquely qualified people, could make a true horror CBM. Not even Sam Raimi could do it with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
And del Toro wanted this project too.
This film could have been the course-correct DC and WB needed. And now, we are only left with one thought of what should have been a bewildering look at the occultic superhero and a GDT director’s cut. (Oh, and James Wan to kick things off with…can’t even say it again.)
There have been some incredible visionaries willing to make a comic book movie and have not been afforded the chance. This list should serve as a reminder of how what could have been often sidetracked with what was. And how we are left with nothing but awful Fantastic Four reboots, rushed multiverses, too much fun and yuks (Thor: Love and Thunder, we’re looking at you), and a ham-handed Green Lantern.
Now that we have a Kevin Feige and an Alan Horn overseeing product, corporate foibles should be reduced, but this is Hollywood. Anything could happen. That’s what scares us daily.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.
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