A few years ago, it was reported that Emerald Fennell was tapped to write a Zatanna movie for DC right on the heels of the awards buzz of her directorial debut feature Promising Young Woman which landed her an Oscar for writing.
However, since then, we haven't heard any significant updates about the project and fans have speculated that it may have already been shelved, especially since the DC franchise is being rebooted at the moment under the new regime of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
Now, the award-winning writer has finally confirmed what fans suspected all along about the fate of the project.
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Emerald Fennell Confirms Zatanna Movie is No Longer In the Works
In a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Fennell was asked whether the Zatanna movie is still happening or has been shelved due to the incoming DCU reboot.
She confirmed that the project is no longer in the works. "No, it's not happening," she said.
The Oscar winner went on to share the story of how she got involved in the project and why she decided to take the job.
"This is all before Promising Young Woman actually. It was when J.J. Abrams was with Warner Bros. and reboot the Dark Universe. They were gonna make this dark villain universe. I just thought he was the coolest," Fennell shared.
"His team at Bad Robot was so cool and interesting because I love genre of all kinds. So much of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn are prodding at a specific genre I'm definitely interested in."
However, Fennell also admitted that she's not a fan of the superhero genre, but she took it as an opportunity to explore and understand its appeal. In the end, the project didn't move forward due to the regime change.
"I don't know huge amount about the superhero genre. It's not a genre I naturally gravitate towards so I'd like to know how does one make a movie like that for people like me who wouldn't necessarily buy a ticket the first time around," she said.
"Zatanna is just a really, really cool character. But yeah, I did write it. It was complicated because the regime changes. You know, all the studio stuff. J.J. and his team were incredible. I wrote in the end a script that is reasonable demented in a good way. But in the end, the whole universe was changed."
It's not surprising to hear the confirmation that the project is not happening since it was never mentioned as part of the new DCU franchise and the lack of update since the announcement years ago was a sign that the movie is not happening.
Knowing Fennell's talent and storytelling style, the Zatanna movie could have been great and refreshing in the superhero genre, but we will never see it in the light of day unless Gunn and Safran decide to resurrect it which is an unlikely situation anytime soon.
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