Had the New Gods movie happened, the DCEU would have introduced several characters from Jack Kirby's huge legacy. One of the projects that had been gestating for years was Ava DuVernay's New Gods, which was first announced in 2018. The movie was set to focus on the Fourth World characters in the DC Universe by following the rivalry between New Genesis and Apokolips. New Gods was revealed almost six months after 2017's Justice League, a film that caused DC Films to restructure and move forward with a different process in producing new movies based on the DC brand. While New Gods stayed in development for years, DuVernay did give occasional updates.
Initially, Kario Salem was penning the screenplay, but later on, DC Comics scribe Tom King boarded the project to write the script with DuVernay. For King, the New Gods would be very familiar territory after having written the critically acclaimed Mister Miracle comics from 2017-2019. This gave the project even more attention by having the DC Comics writer partner up with DuVernay, who also had a big passion for the New Gods characters. However, the movie will unfortunately not see the light of day as Warner Bros. ended up canceling New Gods alongside James Wan's Aquaman spinoff The Trench.
According to Warner Bros. and DC Films, if the two projects were ever revived, DuVernay and Wan would still be attached to those films. When it comes to specific plot details, that is up to DuVernay and King to share if they so choose, although the studio may not let them. However, from 2018 to the film's cancelation in 2021, they did reveal some characters from the New Gods mythology who would have appeared in the film.
Darkseid
One of the central characters in New Gods would have been Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips and one of the biggest Justice League villains of all time. Throughout his existence, Darkseid has been a force to be reckoned with; he's deeply feared by the larger part of the universe. As the lord of Apokolips, Darkseid is obsessed with conquering one world after another as well as wanting to acquire the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid was introduced in Zack Snyder's Justice League with Ray Porter portraying the iconic DC foe for the first time in live-action. There were fans who wanted to see Porter reprise his role in New Gods and while he was open for it, the actor was also supportive of DuVernay casting her own Darkseid, if that was the direction she wanted to take. Regardless if it had been Porter's version or a new actor in the role, New Gods would have benefited from letting Darkseid have a bigger presence.
Highfather
While Darkseid and other evil characters would have represented Apokolips, New Gods would also have included the good forces of New Genesis. One of them would have been none other than Darkseid's own brother, Highfather. In the comics, Highfather, or Izaya as he's known by birth, has a long complicated history with Darkseid, as the two of them had different ideologies. While Darkseid represents evil and chaos as a New God, Highfather believed in peace and free will, thus their two planets constantly having a conflict. They eventually agreed to a pact to end their war by exchanging sons with each other; Highfather got Orion and Darkseid got Scott Free. While Darkseid tried to corrupt Scott, Highfather raised Orion to follow the positive values of New Genesis. The battle between New Genesis and Apokolips resumed after Scott escaped the hell-like planet, which was what Darkseid had wanted to happen.
Mister Miracle
While there have been multiple characters to be called Mister Miracle in the comics, the one that New Gods would have utilized is the Scott Free iteration who is most associated with that title. Scott is Highfather's son, who had a painful upbringing on Apokolips due to his father's pact with Darkseid. Scott was forced to grow up in one of the Terror Orphanages that Granny Goodness was running, where she would corrupt the minds of abandoned children across the universe. Even though he didn't know of his heritage, Scott's spirit was never broken, as he constantly fought back against Apokolips's philosophy. Scott eventually finds his way to Earth after escaping Apokolips and meets Thaddeus Brown, who was a circus escape artist known as Mister Miracle. After Thaddeus's death, Scott became the new Mister Miracle, who has been one of DC Comics' most powerful superheroes for decades.
Big Barda
In the comics, Mister Miracle is heavily connected to Big Barda, another New God that Apokolips was also trying to turn into a corrupted warrior. Big Barda was taken by Apokolips and Granny Goodness raised her to become one of the planet's ultimate champions. Granny attempted to groom Big Barda into becoming the leader of the Female Furies, but from the moment she met Mister Miracle, Big Barda began a new path by falling in love with Scott as well as turn on Apokolips. The two were eventually married and have become a popular duo through their history in the DC Universe. Together, the two New Gods have also helped the Justice League from time to time, while also having a story of their own as powerful heroes in the universe.
Granny Goodness
A crucial player that New Gods would have included was Granny Goodness, who is part of Darkseid's Elite. Granny's path to becoming a high-ranking soldier on Apokolips included her impressing Darkseid during her early days. Initially, Darkseid wanted Granny Goodness to become one of his top fighters, but she showed big potential during her journey. This led Granny Goodness to become a general who would provide elite soldiers for Darkseid with various forms of brainwashing and torture. Granny Goodness runs the Female Furies that consist of women who are solely devoted to fighting for Darkseid, and intended Big Barda to be their leader. Zack Snyder's Justice League also introduced Granny Goodness for the first time cinematically, with an unspecified actress playing her in a brief cameo during the climax. New Gods would have obviously given Granny Goodness more to do by being a principal character.
The Female Furies
While DuVernay never specified which specific members would have been featured, New Gods would have introduced the Female Furies into the DCEU. The most famous Female Furies are Lashina, Mad Harriet, Stompa, Bernadeth, and Gilotina. Since their creation, they have been a big element of Apokolips as well as an important part of Granny Goodness's storyline. During the years, there were points where brainwashed heroines became part of the Female Furies temporarily, like Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Catwoman. The super-villain/anti-heroine Harley Quinn has even been a Female Fury for a brief time. The Female Furies got their live-action debut in Smallville season 10, where Harriet and Lashina appeared in the eighth episode that helped establish Tess Mercer's origin story as well as her history with Granny Goodness. New Gods would have allowed the Female Furies to be depicted in a bigger way, as they have mostly been portrayed as side-villains in other media interpretations.
All-Widow
In May 2020, DuVernay revealed on Twitter that the fourth draft of the New Gods script included a very obscure character: All-Widow. Despite being a smaller New God, All-Widow is the queen of the Bugs, a race of humanoid insects. All-Widow has barely had any stories in the DC Universe, but had New Gods happened, it would have been an opportunity to reimagine the character. By including her, it showed just how far DuVernay was going into the mythology by even adding a character as small as All-Widow. If DuVernay and King were going to bring in All-Widow, then that indicates they were possibly going to bring in other obscure characters.
Only time might tell what New Gods' full line-up of characters would have looked like, although it wouldn't have been shocking if the film had Orion, Glorious Godfrey, Steppenwolf, and even more heroes from New Genesis. Hopefully, in years to come, DuVernay and King will be able to talk about what they had planned for their DCEU movie. Even if they can't reveal 100% of what was in the script, it wouldn't be unrealistic for either of them to share what characters they were including and hinting at the tone that New Gods would have had.
Even though New Gods was canceled, stranger things have happened where Warner Bros. has sometimes even retooled scrapped projects for other purposes. Justice League Dark is a big example, where it was being developed as a feature film for years, but it never took off because the studio couldn't find a suitable director for it. Instead, Warner Bros. is letting that property become a TV series on HBO Max from J.J. Abrams, who is constructing a shared universe for those characters both on the big and small screen. That could easily happen for New Gods if Warner Bros. and DuVernay find a way to revamp it in another format, or even produce it as an original film for HBO Max.
