Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: movies, new gods, the trench, Warner Bros

Ava DuVernay's New Gods, James Wan's The Trench Not Moving Forward

Published Thu, 01 Apr 2021 15:57:49 -0500

The Warner Bros. DC slate has just lost two major players today. The DC side of Warner Bros. has announced a lot of movies that never end up happening over the years. The number is well into the double digits, and the upheaval that came after the Snyder side of the universe essentially not happening really threw a wrench into things. DC and Warner Bros. don't usually outright cancel any projects, though; instead, they just stop updating on things, and then director's move onto other projects. Two major projects have officially been canceled, though, and it's, unfortunately, two projects that had really interesting filmmakers attached to them. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. will not be moving ahead with Ava DuVernay's New Gods movie or James Wan's The Trench Aquaman spin-off at this time.

"As part of our DC slate, some legacy development titles including New Gods and The Trench will not be moving forward," Warner Bros. and DC said in a statement. "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."

Ava DuVernays New Gods and James Wans The Trench Arent Moving Forward — L-R: Ava DuVernay arrives for the 25th Annual Critics' Choice Awards on January 12, 2020, in Santa Monica, CA. Editorial credit: DFree / Shutterstock.com | James Wan arrives to the 'Annabelle Comes Home' World Premiere on June 20, 2019, in Hollywood, CA. Editorial credit: DFree / Shutterstock.com

That is about as close to a full-blown "this is not happening" as it gets. Warner Bros. has repeatedly said that they are moving in a very different direction with the DC universe, and it appears that this direction means losing stories told by two POC filmmakers, which is really unfortunate. DuVernay took to social media to say that Warner Bros. would announce what is going to happen to the New Gods characters soon, but that was before the announcement was officially made that the New Gods movie isn't happening.

Thank you, Ray. You've been nothing but gracious towards me. Appreciate you. And fans who supported. I'm told the studio will be speaking about their recent decision about NEW GODS characters soon. I hope our paths cross one day, sir. If not in the Fourth World, then in another. https://t.co/3Ncrqk1cXf

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 1, 2021

So it sounds like both New Gods and The Trench aren't happening at Warner Bros. at this time, but if these projects were to happen, they would be calling Wan and DuVernay to do them. Wan is already working on another DC project with Aquaman 2, and we can hope that Warner Bros. offers DuVernay another DC project that she could work on. Maybe that new Superman movie? That would be pretty sweet.

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