The DCEU has been in a state of flux for a number of years at this point. Fans are constantly asking about what is a part of this shared world and what isn't.
Projects like Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Shazam! all seem to take place in the universe that Zach Snyder helped conceive after first directing Man of Steel back in 2013. However, upcoming films like The Batman seem to be removed from this shared continuity.
After a string of failures, including the massive critical flop Justice League, WB has been distancing itself from that DC Synderverse in any way possible. One major exception to this push came in the form of this year's Zack Snyder's Justice League, where the director got to finally see his JL vision through after having to leave the original in 2017.
After the Synder Cut finally hit screens, that seemed like the end of this era for the studio, and it was met with the cancellation of a couple of projects including the New Gods movie.
New Gods was supposedly set to build upon this foundation of the DCEU, focusing on a group of characters on the planet of New Genesis as they work as rivals to the big bad Darkseid (the villain revealed in Zack Snyder's Justice League).
For months the DC faithful has pontificated on why this project was ultimately axed from the calendar, well now they may have their reason.
Cut Because of The Snyder Cut
In an interview with SiriusXM, New Gods writer and director Ava DuVernay revealed the ill-fated DC project was canceled because of Zack Snyder's Justice League.
DeVuernay said that WB didn't want to "pursue a certain part of that comic world" because of "things that were going on with another film in that world:"
"I loved New Gods, which is the project that got axed. 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. So, before I even was able to kind of complete my script with Tom King, they axed it. But I already had two projects going.”
Lose One to Gain Another
From these quotes from New Gods director Ava DuVernay, it is not hard to infer the film that she is talking about that WB wanted to pursue was The Snyder Cut. Both projects were set to include a particular focus on DC's Lord of Apokolips.
Darkseid is in fact a New God himself, so it seems that Warner simply wanted to avoid stepping on their own toes by offering audiences something that would likely be two very different visions of the God of Evil.
What is interesting though is how much influence Zack Snyder's Justice League seemed to have had on the DCEU slate, despite supposedly being a one-off film, outside the canon they are currently building. Not to say that the #RestoreTheSnyderverse dream could come to fruition, but one would think that Warner Bros would want to put focus on a project not directly tied to Snyder (i.e. New Gods) rather than going back to the somewhat poisoned well of the Snyderverse.
Perhaps there were more problems with the way New Gods was shaping up, and that could be the case as these quotes are coming from the writer/director of a project that was ultimately kicked to the curb. Or maybe DuVernay's project (which may or may not have been connected to Snyder's superhero team-up) was going to expand on and build upon that Snyder-based foundation so much so that WB knew it made no sense to continue to pursue.
Will the world ever be treated to a New Gods film? It could still happen. At this point, especially leading into the Flashpoint story of The Flash, anything is possible in the DCEU, so it could happen.
But for now, fans will have to stay patient as best they can.
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