10 Planned DC Superhero Movies That Never Took Flight

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For a long time, DC movies primarily focused on Superman and Batman, with only a few lesser-known characters like Swamp Thing or Constantine occasionally getting their own films. However, starting around 2010, many more DC heroes – including Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, Shazam, and the characters from The Suicide Squad – have starred in their own movies. Despite this increase, many potential DC films never actually made it to the big screen, and some were announced with fanfare only to be canceled.

Many Superman and Batman movies have been planned but never made. This list, however, focuses on heroes who haven’t yet appeared in a film, with one exception: a Justice League movie that would have launched a shared cinematic universe well before the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Other projects, like Sgt. Rock and Metal Men, are still being considered for James Gunn’s DC Universe.

These are the top 10 DC films that never got made.

‘Plastic Man’


DC Comics

It’s a surprising choice, but after the success of Batman and Batman Returns, DC decided to explore a movie about Plastic Man in 1992. Warner Bros. and Amblin Pictures collaborated on the project, and both Bryan Spincer (known for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie) and Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers) were considered as potential directors.

Lana and Lily Wachowski began writing the screenplay in 1995. After their 2009 film, Speed Racer, didn’t perform well in theaters, the Wachowskis attempted to bring the project back to life after it had been on hold for 14 years. Keanu Reeves, known for his work with the Wachowskis on The Matrix films, was rumored to be cast as Plastic Man, but he stated he wasn’t involved.

Following the underwhelming performance of the Justice League movie and mixed reactions to films like Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros. revisited the idea of a Plastic Man movie in 2018 as part of a broader effort to refresh the DC Extended Universe. Initially, Amanda Idoko was slated to write the screenplay, but in December 2020, Kat Vasko was brought in to rewrite it, with a focus on making the main character a woman.

Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks, once proposed an animated Plastic Man movie to Geoff Johns, probably around 2016 or 2017. He envisioned Jim Parsons voicing the character, but the project didn’t move forward. Several attempts have been made to create a Plastic Man movie with different actors attached, but so far, no one has been successful in getting it made.

‘Cyborg’


Warner Bros. Pictures

Back in 2014, Warner Bros. and DC announced a big lineup of films planned for what became known as the DCEU, starting after Batman v. Superman. Most of the announced movies, including Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Aquaman, were eventually released. The Flash also eventually came out, but one film, Cyborg, never made it to theaters. Although the COVID-19 pandemic would have delayed its release anyway, the real reason Cyborg was cancelled was due to issues and disagreements that arose during the reshoots of Justice League.

A standalone Cyborg movie starring Ray Fisher was planned as a continuation of the Justice League story. However, when Zack Snyder left Justice League and Joss Whedon took over reshoots, many of Fisher’s scenes were cut. Fisher publicly accused Whedon of acting unprofessionally and Walter Hamada, who led DC Films at the time, of allowing it to happen. In 2021, with the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Fisher stated he wouldn’t play Cyborg again if Hamada remained at DC Films. Now, even though Hamada has left and James Gunn is leading DC, the new DC Universe reboot appears to have ended any chance of Ray Fisher starring in a Cyborg film.

‘Wonder Twins’


Warner Bros.

The Wonder Twins, first appearing in the 1977 cartoon The All-New Super-Friends, are usually considered a comedic duo by fans. That’s why many were surprised when an HBO Max movie starring the twins was announced in February 2022. The script was to be written and the film directed by Adam Sztykiel, known for his work on Black Adam. The project gained momentum quickly, with KJ Apa (from Riverdale) and Isabel May (Scream 7) cast as Zan and Jayan.

Originally, Wonder Twins was planned as a lower-budget movie for HBO Max, alongside films like Batgirl and Blue Beetle, and intended to connect to the larger DC Universe. However, just a month after the actors were chosen, Warner Bros.’ new CEO, David Zaslav, canceled the project. He explained that the $75 million cost was too high, and the company was moving away from making expensive original films specifically for HBO Max.

‘Blackhawks’


DC Comics

Steven Spielberg has wanted to direct a movie based on DC Comics’ Blackhawks for years, but Warner Bros. hasn’t prioritized the project. The Blackhawks are a team of diverse pilots fighting in World War II, operating from Blackhawk Island, and were a very popular comic series in the 1940s and 50s. Back in 1980, Spielberg considered making a Blackhawks film with Dan Aykroyd after his movie 1941 didn’t perform well at the box office. Fortunately, he chose to make Raiders of the Lost Ark instead, though he remained interested in revisiting the Blackhawks concept.

Warner Bros. brought back the Blackhawks project in April 2018, with Steven Spielberg directing and producing. He also hired David Koepp, who previously wrote War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to write the screenplay. Spielberg initially planned Blackhawks as his next film after West Side Story, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays with the musical and led him to instead focus on writing the script for The Fabelmans.

As of 2022, David Koepp was still writing the screenplay, but it was uncertain if Steven Spielberg would direct due to his busy schedule. The film, originally titled Blackhawks, wasn’t intended to be connected to the DC Extended Universe, and if the project moved forward with Spielberg directing, it probably wouldn’t be included in the newly established DC Universe either.

‘New Gods’


DC Comics

As a longtime comics fan, I was really excited when two of Jack Kirby’s most imaginative creations – DC’s New Gods and Marvel’s Eternals – got the big-screen treatment. We finally saw Eternals in November 2021, directed by Chloé Zhao. While it wasn’t a hit with critics – it was actually the first real stumble for the MCU – I have to give Marvel credit for taking a big risk and getting it made. Unfortunately, Ava DuVernay’s New Gods adaptation wasn’t so fortunate; it never actually made it to release.

Ava DuVernay signed on to direct New Gods in 2018, just before her film A Wrinkle in Time came out. Kario Salem initially wrote the script, but Tom King, known for his popular Mister Miracle comic, later joined as a writer. However, the New Gods movie was canceled in April 2021, shortly after Zack Snyder’s Justice League premiered on HBO Max and included Darkseid – a key character in DuVernay and King’s planned film.

Tom King is currently working on an animated version of his Mister Miracle story for DC Studios. However, this project isn’t connected to Ava DuVernay’s planned New Gods adaptation. Many fans were excited about the possibility of DuVernay, a highly creative director, bringing the important New Gods comic to life, but unfortunately, that project was cancelled.

‘Justice League Dark’


DC Comics

Shortly after the comic book Justice League Dark launched in 2012, Guillermo del Toro began working on a movie adaptation centered around a team of supernatural heroes. His initial plan included characters like Constantine, Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, and Zatanna, and also featured roles for The Phantom Stranger, Etrigan the Demon, The Spectre, Zatarra, Sargon the Sorcerer, and the Floronic Man. However, del Toro left the project in 2015 and was replaced by Doug Liman, the director known for films like Swingers and The Bourne Identity.

Despite Warner Bros.’ initial interest – the team was presented at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con – Liman quickly left the Justice League Dark project. J.J. Abrams later tried to revive the idea in 2020 as a series of films and TV shows, even starting development on Constantine and Madame Xanadu shows. However, when James Gunn and Peter Safran took charge of DC Studios in 2023, all of those plans were cancelled. Currently, there are no plans for a Justice League Dark movie in the new DC Universe, although Swamp Thing is getting his own film.

‘Zatanna’


DC Comics

Zatanna is DC Comics’ most well-known magic user and has the potential to become a hugely popular character. Back in 2005, a script for a comedic action movie starring a teenage Zatanna was written by Hadley Davis, who also worked on The Ice Princess. After that, any plans to make a Zatanna movie were part of the Justice League Dark projects. More recently, in March 2021, Emerald Fennell, the director of Promising Young Woman, was brought on to write a script for a Zatanna film and was also considered as a potential director.

J.J. Abrams was set to produce a film about Zatanna, along with other projects connected to the darker side of the Justice League. Like Batgirl and Wonder Twins, it was originally planned as a movie for HBO Max. However, the film was canceled in 2022 when David Zaslav became the head of Warner Bros. and James Gunn and Peter Safran were put in charge of the new DC Studios. Fans are hoping a Zatanna story will eventually appear in the DC Universe.

‘Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max’


DC Comics

2008 was a turning point for superhero movies, with the release of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight. That same year, Warner Bros. started working on a particularly bold idea – a project initially called Super Max, which would eventually become Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max.

The planned movie, penned by David S. Goyer (known for Batman Begins) and Justin Marks (The Jungle Book), would have featured the Green Arrow, Oliver Queen. It wouldn’t have been an origin story; instead, it would have started with the Green Arrow already established as a hero. The plot involved him being arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, publicly unmasked, and thrown into a prison filled with supervillains – many of whom he had previously incarcerated. To escape, the Green Arrow would have been forced to collaborate with these enemies.

The movie was originally going to include both Lex Luthor and The Joker. While Warner Bros. never officially explained why they cancelled the project, it was likely due to two main reasons. First, Heath Ledger had just given a legendary performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, and they probably didn’t want to replace him with another actor so quickly. Second, they were planning a Superman reboot and wanted to hold onto Lex Luthor for that film.

The character Green Arrow eventually starred in his own TV show, Arrow, which surprisingly borrowed ideas from an old script called Super Max in its seventh season when Oliver Queen was imprisoned. Now that James Gunn is building a DC Universe with a rich history of heroes and villains, revisiting the Super Max script could be a good idea.

‘Justice League: Mortal’


DC Comics

The movie Justice League: Mortal is a well-known example of a DC film that was canceled before it could be made. It was a significant project – we’ve even written a full article detailing how its failure ultimately affected the Harry Potter and Twilight movie series.

In 2007, George Miller, the director of Mad Max, was hired to direct Justice League: Mortal. This film wasn’t intended to connect with the existing Batman movies directed by Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight), or the recent Superman Returns. The plan was to create a fresh, independent Justice League movie that could potentially launch further spin-off films if it did well. The movie’s story was largely inspired by the “Tower of Babel” Justice League comic book arc and the Countdown to Infinite Crisis storyline.

Things were moving fast with the production, and honestly, it started to feel like this movie could actually happen. They were assembling a pretty great cast too – Armie Hammer was set to play Batman, Jay Barchuel was going to be Maxwell Lord, and Teressa Palmer was cast as Talia Al Ghul. Plus, it was cool to see D.J. Cotrona and Adam Brody, who would later star in Shazam!, lined up to play Superman and The Flash, respectively.

Originally planned for release in July 2009, the movie faced multiple setbacks. The first was the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but pre-production quickly restarted in February 2008. Another problem arose when the Australian government refused to offer a tax break, arguing the film didn’t feature enough Australian actors, even though most of the crew were Australian. This led to filming being moved to Canada and delayed until July 2008. However, the massive success of The Dark Knight that same month—earning over $1 billion—prompted Warner Bros. to cancel the project altogether, to avoid competing with Christopher Nolan’s Batman films.

‘Batgirl’


Warner Bros.

The unreleased Batgirl movie is arguably the most well-known DC film that was cancelled, especially since it was fully filmed and completed. Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (known for Bad Boys for Life), the movie starred Leslie Grace as Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Brendan Fraser as the villain Firefly. It was originally planned as a streaming release on HBO Max and part of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Filming occurred between November 2021 and March 2022, and notably featured Michael Keaton returning as Batman, fitting into plans for a timeline reset after the movie The Flash.

On August 2, 2022, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, made the surprising and debated choice to cancel the release of the movie Batgirl. Instead of being shown on HBO Max in 2022 as planned, the film was written off as a tax loss. Those involved with the movie – the actors and crew – only learned about the cancellation when the news appeared in the media.

Warner Bros. initially tried to present the cancellation of Batgirl as a good thing, claiming it would have harmed the DC brand. This justification felt ironic when later DC films – Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – all underperformed both critically and at the box office. Unless the film is somehow leaked online, Batgirl will likely remain a fascinating “what could have been” in DC movie history, especially considering how far along in production it was and the fact that the finished film is just sitting unused in a vault.

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2025-11-04 02:10