DC Cancels One Of Its Most Anticipated Upcoming Movies
Amid a plethora of DC cutbacks, the highly anticipated Zatanna film has officially been canceled.
The Warner Discovery cutbacks continue as the upcoming Zatanna movie will no longer be coming to HBO Max. This is the latest in a long line of DC cancellations, and fans of the character are no doubt going to be pretty disappointed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project is getting shopped out to other streaming platforms, so there is a glimmer of hope that the movie could come out sometime in the future.
Regardless, this is definitely a setback for the Zatanna movie, which had tapped Promising Young Woman screenwriter Emerald Fennel to take on the screenplay. Though there is a lot of magic in the DC universe, it’s an area that hasn’t been explored in-depth in DC’s live-action universe. Zatanna‘s not the only sorcerer who has been canceled, as the exorcist and demonologist Constantine also won’t be getting a series at HBO Max.
Of course, there is a sequel film to Keanu Reeves’ Constantine on the way, so fans of this particular character still have something to look forward to. This is in line with CEO David Zaslav’s focus on films that will be played in theaters. Since the Zatanna film, like the Batgirl film, was planned for an HBO Max release, it’s not too shocking it’s getting the boot.
Still, it’s not the best look for DC to be canceling another female-led superhero film, especially since Batgirl was nearly finished when it was given the ax. This is especially true considering DC has had no problems moving forward with The Flash film, despite the legal troubles and allegations surrounding star Ezra Miller. While Zatanna might have less name recognition and the project wasn’t as far into development, there are plenty of DC fans who would have liked to see her DCEU debut.
The Zatanna news is also another blow for producer J.J. Abrams, who was set to produce the project as part of his initiative to bring a Justice League Dark team to the DCEU. Along with the Constantine series which he was also producing, Warner Discover also pulled the plug on his ambitious sci-fi series Demimonde, which would have aired on HBO. While Abrams has a huge deal with Warner Discovery to produce projects for them, you have to wonder how he’s feeling about multiple projects getting the boot.
Fortunately, Zatanna isn’t completely dead in the water like the Batgirl film. While Batgirl likely will never see the light of day, the fact that Zatanna is getting shopped around to other streaming services means that there’s still a chance the project could happen. With J.J. Abrams and an exciting writer like Emerald Fennel, it definitely seems like the type of project that might get snapped up.
While we wait to find out the final fate of Zatanna, we do have DC projects to keep us busy in the meantime. The long-awaited Black Adam film starring Dwayne Johnson will be coming to theaters this weekend. Along with Johnson, Black Adam stars Sarah Shahi, Noah Centineo, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Quintessa Swindell, Viola Davis, and Jennifer Holland.
