DC Films’ The Trench and New Gods movies have been shelved, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The former would have been a James Wan-produced Aquaman spinoff with light horror elements, while the latter was set to be a film version of Jack Kirby’s creations from Ava DuVernay and Tom King. Warner Bros. and DC provided a statement on the matter:
As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward. We thank our partners Ava DuVernay, Tom King, James Wan, and Peter Safran for their time and collaboration during this process and look forward to our continued partnership with them on other DC stories. The projects will remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future.
THR reports that there is room in the future to potentially revisit both The Trench and New Gods. Executives reportedly felt DC’s movie lineup for the next few years “did not have a natural spot” for either film, so they “believed it was best not to leave the filmmakers hanging in development without a clear end in sight.” The Trench was reportedly considered for streaming at one point before its cancellation. New Gods, on the other hand, was supposed to feature DC villain Darkseid, which brought on its own complications thanks to the character’s recent appearance in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. For now, though, there are no plans to continue work on The Trench or New Gods.
DuVernay took to Twitter to share her thoughts on her film’s cancellation:
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1377725452228431873
DC Films has certainly been busy building out its next few years of movies. For example, Dwayne Johnson will appear as the title character in Black Adam when that film premieres in 2022, and the company recently revealed that it has plans to bring audiences a Zatanna and Blue Beetle movie. Meanwhile, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is set to come to theaters and HBO Max this August.
