“Gotham City Sirens”
David Ayer was hoping to catapult from the success of “Suicide Squad” and take on a new superhero film for DC, titled “Gotham City Sirens.” The film would have been based on the idea of the comic book series of the same name, combining some of the most popular female Bat-Family characters into one feature. Ayer talked openly about his desire to make the film, but eventually, the talk disappeared when Margot Robbie’s “Birds of Prey” was greenlit, making the idea of a “Gotham City Sirens” film a bit redundant.
“Harley Quinn vs. Joker”
Remember when “Suicide Squad” was on the verge of hitting theaters back in 2016 and the world was incredibly excited to see Margot Robbie take on the role of Harley Quinn and Jared Leto become The Joker? Yeah, times were simpler then. Robbie would, of course, go on to provide an iconic performance as Harley, with Leto’s Joker becoming the butt of many jokes. However, at some point, WB thought the financial success of “Suicide Squad” meant that people wanted to see more Joker and Harley, and reports surfaced of writers being hired for a “Harley Quinn vs. Joker” film. Well, years passed and Margot Robbie would go on to star in “Birds of Prey” and the upcoming “The Suicide Squad,” pretty much completely destroying any chance her ‘Joker’ spinoff would happen.
“New Gods”
Just recently, it was announced that Ava DuVernay’s highly-anticipated cosmic DC superhero film, “New Gods,” was shelved. The film was expected to focus on the extraterrestrial characters created by Jack Kirby and would have brought DuVernay into the superhero film fold. Unfortunately, this film seems to not jive with the current WB/DC Films plan, therefore, it’s dead.
“Nightwing”
Back in 2017, it was announced that Chris McKay was going to helm a ‘Batman’ spinoff focused on former Robin, Dick Grayson, who now goes by the title Nightwing. The film even seemingly had a draft of the script finished in 2018. However, in recent years, there has been hardly any movement on the project. And a report from 2019 seemed to indicate that the film was placed on the shelf because Matt Reeves could potentially introduce Grayson as Robin in a ‘Batman’ film. So, at this point, it looks like “Nightwing” doesn’t have a bright future unless the whole project is completely overhauled. We shall see.
“The Trench”
James Wan seemed really excited about the possibility of expanding his “Aquaman” franchise with a horror-themed spinoff, “The Trench,” focused on the scary baddies that live deep in the pits of the ocean. And with the success of “Aquaman,” this seemed like a no-brainer. But recently, WB announced “The Trench” would not be moving ahead at the studio, with the focus being put back on “Aquaman 2.”
“Justice League” Sequels
And though not alphabetically accurate, we’re going to end this massive list with a controversial pick. In the lead-up to the release of “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” Zack Snyder teased how he planned on releasing a trilogy of “Justice League” films that would complete the story that began all the way back in “Man of Steel.” Of course, there’s no point getting into all the drama that happened during “Justice League,” but suffice to say, it appears Warner Bros. is moving on and leaving the Snyderverse in the rear-view mirror. Now, there is definitely a coordinated social media campaign led by the #ReleaseThe SnyderCut folks to #RestoreTheSnyderverse, and those people are up to their old tricks of hijacking social media threads and making it all about their favorite superhero filmmaker. However, the CEO of WarnerMedia has said the studio is moving on. Zack Snyder seems content with moving on to do non-superhero things. This leads to the common-sense assumption that the proposed “Justice League” sequels are going to remain unmade. Sorry, folks.