On the heels of A Wrinkle in Time‘s release, Ava DuVernay is closing in on a deal to direct Warner Bros. film adaptation of DC Comics’ The New Gods for WB’s DC Extended Universe.
This would be DuVuernay’s second $100M+ budget movie, this first being Wrinkle. The studio is set to find a writer soon to work with DuVernay on the script. If you remember correctly, back last year, when asked who her favorite superhero was, DuVernay responded on Twitter that it was Big Barda, one of the New Gods.
The New Gods would be the second DC superhero franchise directed by a woman, following Patty Jenkins with Wonder Woman.
DuVernay would be the second woman of color to direct a major superhero film, with Gina Prince-Bythewood being the first, as she’s set to direct the Sony Marvel/Spider-Man universe film, Silver and Black.
Created by the iconic comic book artist Jack Kirby himself, the first The New Gods comic was released in 1971. The most recent was released in 2011. The New Gods universe is one that separately exists from the rest of the DC world.
More information on The New Gods from DC: The New Gods are exactly that—they’re new gods. They came into existence after the world of the old gods, the gods of classical mythology, was destroyed during Ragnarok. The world of these known deities was split and became two separate planets, forever linked, but utterly different. One is called New Genesis and the other is Apokolips.
These worlds are referred to as twins, but the reality is that they couldn’t be or look more different. New Genesis is a lush green paradise, while Apokolips is a scorched, nightmarish landmarked by massive fire pits. Both these worlds exist outside of the DC Multiverse, meaning the Apokolips on Earth Prime is the same one as on Earth-2. So when the forces of Apokolips attacked Earth-2 in the pages of our Earth-2 comic, they were the same forces that are now invading Earth Prime in “Darkseid War.” However, since they exist outside the Multiverse, they require a special form of transportation to get here—boom tubes. If you’ve ever read a comic book with Fourth World characters in it, you’ve almost certainly seen boom tubes. They look something like a wormhole and always appear in comics with a giant BOOOOOOOOOM! sound effect that spans the entire panel. Boom tubes are pretty cool, but what’s most interesting about the worlds of the New Gods are the remarkable characters who live on them.”
After the underperformance of Justice League, the studio re-evaluated its DC film process. So this seems to be a big move in the right direction!
DC also has Aquaman, set for release this year, and Wonder Woman 2, which is in development.
Deadline first reported the news.