Warner Bros. is going full steam ahead with The New Gods, with A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay set to helm the big screen adaptation of Jack Kirby's creations.

The race of gods were first introduced in the Justice League from 2017, with a sequel implied to continue the story, but this news seems like a change in direction. Warner Bros. clearly wants to distance itself from the failures of the DC Extended Universe, and it feels like a movie developed around the New Gods would make Justice League 2 completely unnecessary.

The Justice League Connection

Steppenwolf from Justice League

Dating back to 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the New Gods have been very deliberately set up as the big bads of the DC Extended Universe. A deleted scene from the film showed Lex Luthor talking to Steppenwolf, though the character was cut from the final theatrical release. Then, in Justice League, The New Gods showed up in a big way with a full-scale invasion of Earth by Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. The plot centered around the importance of the Mother Boxes, and implied that an even bigger, badder dude was waiting in the wings: Darkseid.

RELATED: Early Justice League Storyboard Had Darkseid Destroy the Hall of Justice

It was actively hinted and implied by the studio and the film itself that Darkseid, frequently depicted as the ultimate evil of the DC Universe, would be the villain of the eventual Justice League 2 that has been planned. Despite a disappointing return at the box office, it was believed there studio would still return for a sequel, if only to finish the storylines left hanging and improve on the failures of the first film.

Those plans seem to be in serious doubt in the wake of the massive changes Warner Bros. has brought about in the last few months. The studio has cut ties with Zack Snyder, reorganized DC Films, and walked back from many of the company's developing projects. It seems that the studio has essentially abandoned the original plans in order to distance itself from the failures of the DCEU and try to stick with what is working. Now, with the announcement of The New Gods, Justice League 2 just seems redundant.

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A lot needs to be determined about how the New Gods will be adapted to the big screen. We already saw what Snyder did with Steppenwolf in Justice League, but for a full film centered around them, things will have to be reworked. This is not just a matter of how they will look, though, but what story the filmmakers will tell. If you're wondering what definitive New Gods story could possibly be adapted, there isn't one, because Jack Kirby was never allowed to tell it.

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The New Gods were created by Kirby in the early 1970s as a thinly veiled way to follow up on his work with Thor at Marvel. These characters literally sprang to life out of the ashes of a cataclysmic battle of the Old Gods that is implied to be Norse Ragnarok. Kirby envisioned a beginning, middle, and end to his Fourth World epic that would encompass the ideas and concepts he wasn't allowed to use on Thor. That's right: If Kirby had his way, Mister Miracle, Orion, Big Barda, and even Darkseid would have died in the end. Instead, DC Comics decided they liked the characters, and the story was never told. The publisher has struggled to figure out what to do with them ever since.

DCEU Justice League No Plan

So, what does this mean for a film? The New Gods aren't like other superheroes, who have any number of stories that can be adapted on the big screen. Like Watchmen, The New Gods have one story, only it's one has never truly been told. They were born, they fight, and then they destroy each other. There's some dichotomy between good and evil and some Shakespearian sense of prophesy. This was what Kirby intended them to do, and no one has done anything with them in 40 years to change that. That means you can't tell the story of The New Gods without Darkseid eventually facing his ultimate end. It's why there was always supposed to be a Justice League 2.

Having a New Gods film and a sequel to Justice League would feel like overkill, and it would ultimately hurt both projects. If The New Gods film can't tell the full story of these characters, what's the point in trying? If Justice League 2 has to compete with another movie telling the same story, it becomes useless spectacle. It's hard to envision one movie centered around these characters, let alone two.

Here's the Ultimate Compromise Warner Bros. Can Make

new gods

If Warner Bros. is serious about bringing a New Gods movie to theaters, it has to allow DuVernay to have complete control over these characters. Considering that the initial report says this film will be separate from the DCEU, it seems that the studio already knows this. That doesn't mean there can't be a sequel to Justice League one day, but it simply should not be the story that Snyder and Warner Bros. initially envisioned.

RELATED: DCEU’s Eisenberg Is Down to Return as Lex Luthor

Giving the New Gods story over to DuVernay would allow any potential Justice League sequel to tell a different, and perhaps even more interesting story. Let the team fight the Legion of Doom, or whatever villainous group Lex Luthor recruited Deathstroke to join. Leave the gods to their own playing field. The New Gods can be fun, but there's a lot of ways to get them completely wrong. They are going to need a whole film's attention just to get them right, so this might be for the best.