Ava DuVernay’s New Gods and James Wan’s The Trench have been scrapped

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Warner Bros.' upcoming slate of DC movies is looking a little lighter as THR has reported that the studio will not be moving forward with Ava DuVernay's New Gods and James Wan's Aquaman spin-off, The Trench.

"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 DuVernay took to Twitter to mark the end of her time on the project.

THR said that it was becoming obvious that Warner Bros. didn't have a natural slot for New Gods or The Trench in its upcoming slate and didn't want to leave the filmmakers hanging, but that doesn't mean that projects are entirely dead as they could be resurrected in some form or another in the future. Ava DuVernay had been developing New Gods with Tom King since 2018, which would have revolved around the comic-book characters created by the late, great Jack Kirby. One complication which arose is that its villain was Darkseid, who, as we know, recently appeared in Zack Snyder's Justice League, so Warner Bros. is hoping to to put a little space between his appearances. As for The Trench, the Aquaman spin-off was to center around the Trench, the terrifying amphibious creatures who were seen attacking Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) in the first film. It would have been more of a horror film than a superhero movie, but THR says that Warner Bros. might return to it if people are still hungry for more of the Aquaman universe following the upcoming sequel which starts shooting later this year.