There are plenty of reasons why a film will get cancelled. It can be kicking around in
development hell, studios could disagree about the direction of the screenplay or what creatives
to hire, or the film might get canned if it doesn’t sync up to what’s currently making
money at the box office. Regardless of the reasons, DC fans are quite familiar with their
hopes and dreams for certain features being crushed thanks to cancellations. So today,
we’re counting down the top 10 cancelled DC movies we’ll never get to see.
10 DCEU Cyborg - Sasha So Cyborg has definitely moved up in terms of team affiliation in last
few decades moving from Teen Titans founding member to one of the Justice League core a
status that was also granted to him in the DCEU where the character made his debut in
the 2017 film . There was a lot riding on this a lot of potential sequels and spin offs
that either came to naught or are trapped in development hell like Ezra Miller’s flash
film. Another film that was slated to come out was Cyborg and actually recently at the
time of this recording some leaked images from the Snyder cut of justice leage have
been released by Snyder who is really pushing to get that cut released and fans are bummed
because the cyborg movie at the time of this recoding has been shelved and Ray Fisher is
no longer set to reprise the role. So if you loved this version of Cyborg or at least wanted
to see more than alas that is no longer on the horizon. Justice league actually collapsed
the dceu which is now the worlds of dc even though everyone just cals it the dceu still.
Cause why not.
9 Zatanna – Kelly In 2005, writer Hadley Davis announced that
she had written a live action comedy treatment for Zatanna, one of DC’s magical superheroes.
Davis, who is most well-known for writing the Michelle Trachtenberg figure skating film
Ice Princess, never confirmed whether there was studio interest, and the concept of a
Zatanna film essentially slipped into oblivion after that. It’s safe to assume that any
efforts on that project were all together abandoned. On the plus side though, there’s
still hope for Zatanna fans; rumour has it that the character will likely appear in the
Justice League Dark film that’s allegedly in the works for the DCEU, which would have
her rubbing shoulders with the likes of Constantine and Deadman.
8 Lobo – Sasha – The main man himself was set to have a big live action debut directed
by Guy Ritchie . This was supposed to happen in 2009 after Warner Brothers saw the success
of iron man and sensed that a new age of superhero films may be on the horizon. So they were
interested in guy Ritchie there’s not much about this and it kinda vanished but it’s
not even the only time this adaptation has been pitched in fact it’s still being talked
about as of 2018 there were rumours that it was still in development and that maybe Michael
bay would direct it and potentially it could star the rock but then in 2019 they were like
nope that’s not happening either because drum roll Lobo is getting his won dc show
and there’s a thing that these companies have about characters being on the big and
small screen they’ll make exceptions but there is a low grade concern about confusing
viewers. So with a series in the pipeline and appearances on Krypton the big bad’s
big screen chances have dwindled. For now who know what the future holds. Whatever it
is please no sexy boy band logo. I don’t want it he can go hang out with boy band namor.
7 Jack Black’s Green Lantern – Kelly Back in 2004, comic book films were having
a rough time. Halle Berry just won a razzie for Catwoman. Blade Trinity was a disappointment,
and The Punisher got a rather PG take released up on the big screen. To make matters worse,
Warner Brothers decided that they wanted to do a Green Lantern film. This was a ways before
Ryan Reynolds was being considered for Hal Jordan, and instead, after seeing more serious
superhero movies flounder like Daredevil, the studio wanted a comedic actor to play
the hero. And after the success of 2003’s School of Rock, Jack Black was on their radar.
It didn’t get far; a script was completed, but the film never made it out of the development
stage. There was also a lot of heat online over it, to the point where the screenwriter,
Robert Smigel, said Black was never officially attached and that if he was cast as the hero,
it’d be an insult to the comic character. Black was never even supposed to play Hal
Jordan; the script had a brand new ring bearer, some dude named Jud Plato.
6 Batman vs Superman but good – Sasha Now you may be saying Sasha are you ok we already
got a Batman V Superman movie I know it wasn’t great but did you block it entirely from your
mind. No we’re talking about a different one, one without jolly ranchers and sweet
tea. This film was also supposed to be happening in the early 2000, 2002 to be exact. It’s
working title was Asylum and was meant to be a way to reignite both franchises as Superman
was coming off of Superman 4 and Batman was coming off the Schumacher era. They knew there
was potential in these properties but how best to bring it out. This was being pitched
along with several other projects some that are coming up or have already been mentioned
on this list. All at the same time just throwing ideas at the wall to see what would stick.
This one was in phantom casting mode starring jude law and Collin Farrell as batman and
superman this was was not set to be really connected to any of the previous films so
if it had happened it may have suffered from b v s symdrome of having to do a lot in a
short span of time. Who knows it might have been worse. Don’t look at me like that you
don’t know
5 Green Arrow Prison Film – Kelly Affectionately referred to as Green Arrow
Escape from Super Max, this cinematic dud was once a venture pushed by David S Goyer,
the man who had co-written Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and the Blade trilogy.
He also worked with Zack Synder on Man of Steel, but we’ll let that one slide. Anywho,
he once spearheaded an attempt to get a Green Arrow film going, one whose plot revolved
around Oliver Queen being incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, having been framed
for an assassination of a high ranking government official. Locked up with villains he had helped
put away, he ends up forming partnerships with members of his rogues’ gallery in a
scheme to escape the max security facility. The co-write of the script even told MTV that
he used his previous architecture education to design the prison, and that it was a character
itself. Villains who would make an appearance included Edward Nigma and Lex Luthor, and
Goyer even promised a Joker easter egg. All seemed as if it were on track for the film
to get made, but then 2008 happened. The MCU released it’s first installment with Iron
Man. Goyer ended up working on other projects, including Nolan’s Batman films. Then there
was radio silence, until website Den of Geek asked Goyer about the project in 2015, who
said it was ahead of its time.
4 Batman Year One – Sasha Oh Batman Year One written by Frank Miller and released throughout
1987 this was a glimpse into Batman’s early start as a crime fighter and set up some lasting
dynamics. Including a new origin for Catwoman that it took years for her to escape. This
is considered one of the pinnacle story arcs for Batman and was already adapted into an
animated film and for a time Darren aronofsky known for his character pieces like the fighter
and psychological thrillers such as black swan wanted to make this into a live action
reality. This was in talks after the end of the Schumacher batman era or the era of bat
nipples and ice! This one got to the scripting phase with Miller and Aronofksy working on
the screenplay together but the pitch was ultimately rejected because it was rated r
and Warner Brothers wanted to maintain their young viewer base so an r rated film was out.
The duo blame a lot of this on the need for toy sales over years concept images for the
batmobile and costume have leaked. Ultimately we know that Nolan would take over the Batman
franchise and Batman Begins is very year one esque but with a lot of the grit and well
prostitutes removed. Still this is a window into what have been and in the multiverse
somewhere probably was.
3 Tim Burton’s Catwoman – Kelly Tim Burton’s Batman films hold a special
place in many DC fans hearts. They were the first massive cinematic adaptation of the
caped crusader, and proved to the world how profitable comic book films could be. Turns
out Burton had another Batman film in the works though, a spin off that would never
come to fruition; a Catwoman film, with Michelle Pfeiffer reprising her role. Pfeiffer had
purposely been left out of Batman Forever because of it. Penned by Daniel Waters, the
screenwriter behind Batman Returns, a development deal had been signed with Warner Brothers
in 1994, with Burton attached to direct. According to Waters, the plot of the film revolved around
Catwoman having amnesia thanks to the events of Batman Returns, with her going to the DC
equivalent of Las Vegas where she encounters other superheroes, and the film would play
with making fun of the whole male superhero mythos. But after the success of Batman Forever,
which was the highest grossing feature of 1995, Warner Brothers decided to not go down
the dark route that the Catwoman script explored, and the film fell into limbo permanently.
Instead, in 2004, we got a Catwoman film starring Halle Berry, and well, we all know how that
one turned out.
2 JJ Abrams’ Superman Flyby – Sasha Even as a working title that one makes me chuckle
it makes me imaging Superman flying overhead and aggressively chucking care packages at
people. This one would have been an early 2000s projects helmed by jj abrams who is
everywhere these days but at the time he wasn’t quite as hot the commodity as he is now. Abrams
goal was to bring superman back to big screen after the series had ended on the rather lackluster
note of 1987’s superman 4 the quest for peace. This was going to deal with the extremely
influential and popular Death of Superman plot Kelly’s least favourite plot of all
time which is why this my number. Her head is over there exploding she’s glad this
didn’t happen. Recently at the time of this recording the death of superman and the reign
of the supermen arc have been adapted as animated films they’re alright. Death of superman
would be a lot to cram into one film that’s a lot of set up also for superman’s great
return to be for him to die would have been a bit harsh. Still would it have been better
than Superman Returns. We’ll never know. Superman Flyby cause he’s dead.
1 Superman Lives – Kelly And last but not least, we’re ending off
this list with yet another Tim Burton film that never came to be. We’re talking Superman
Lives, Burton’s man of steel feature film that starred Nicholas Cage as the titular
character. Nic Cage as Clark Kent was something we ALL needed to see but were horribly deprived
of when Warner Brothers thought that Burton’s vision cost too lofty ($190 million dollars
too lofty), and after a year of pre-production, much of the key creatives behind it walked,
and the film fell into limbo, with WB eventually working with Bryan Singer on 2006’s Superman
Returns instead. A 2015 documentary was even made about the film, chronicling the behind
the scenes events surrounding its cancellation, and interviewed those involved with the projects
development and conceptual work, including Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, Dan Gilroy and costume
designer Colleen Atwood. In 2017, at the TIFF, Nicholas Cage told EW of the unmade movie,
I quote, “the movie that Tim and I would have made, in your imagination, is more powerful
than any of the Superman movies.” And honestly, we believe that.
There we have it friends! What other DC cancellations have bummed you out? Which ones from our list
would you still love to see happen? Give us a shout in those comments below and share
your thoughts!