‘New Gods’ And ‘Aquaman’ Spin-Off ‘The Trench’ Canceled By Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. has canceled two of their upcoming DC superhero-related titles –New Gods, which was going to be directed byAva DuVernay, and theAquamanspin-offThe Trench. Reasons for the cancelations vary –New Godswas set to have Darkseid as a villain, and Warner Bros. apparently doesn’t want to return to that character so soon afterZack Snyder’s Justice League, whereas the studio thinks anAquamansequel is good enough and they don’t need to worry about spin-offs set in that world.
THRhas the scoop thatNew GodsandThe Trenchhave been canceled by Warner Bros. “As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles includingNew GodsandThe Trenchwill not be moving forward,” Warner Bros. and DC said. “We thank our partners Ava DuVernay, Tom King, James Wan, and Peter Safran for their time and collaboration during this process and look forward to our continued partnership with them on other DC stories. The projects will remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future.“New Gods, based on characters created by legendary comics creator Jack Kirby, was going to be directed by Ava DuVernay, whileThe Trenchwas a horror movie set in the world ofAquaman, featuring the monstrous creatures first spotted in James Wan’s film. Wan was going to produce, with a script by Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. The reasoning behind these cancelations? WithNew Gods, WB seems to be concerned about bringing back villain Darkseid, who was just seen inZack Snyder’s Justice League. And as forThe Trench, “sources say that the upcomingAquamansequel was considered enough.”
This sounds genuinely silly to be –Aquamanwas a huge hit, so why not keep expanding that world beyond a sequel? And who the hell cares if Darkseid just appeared in another movie? THR also adds that “insiders note that when it became clear the upcoming DC slate did not have a natural spot forNew GodsorTheTrenchover the next few years, execs believed it was best not to leave the filmmakers hanging in development without a clear end in sight.”
On top of that, Warner Bros. and DC seem to want to get back to creating a big shared cinematic universe. Aside from Matt Reeves’sThe Batman, the upcoming Warner Bros./DC TV and film slate are all meant to exist together, with hopes that the upcomingThe Flashwill “lend clarity to the future of the Justice League.” Again: this strikes me as silly. Trying to cobble together a big shared superhero cinematic universe a la Marvel is what got Warner Bros. in trouble to begin with. Meanwhile,Joker, a completely stand-alone movie, was a major hit and took home multiple Oscars. The lesson learned should be that it’s wiser to forge ahead with strong individual movies than worry about a cinematic universe, but it’s clear the Warner Bros. doesn’t agree with that.
