The word on the street is that Joker is getting his own live-action DC movie, one that won't take place in the DC Extended Universe or feature Jared Leto's Clown Prince of Crime. Even more intriguing is the fact that the Joker movie is reportedly the first in a new series of standalone, one-off DC movies that will tackle characters in new and unexpected ways.
There's a lot of potential in a continuity-light imprint of DC movies, one that focuses on telling great stories that don't necessarily fit into the larger DCEU. And naturally, there are plenty of existing DC stories that would make great fodder for the one-off treatment. Here are nine DC movies we'd love to see after Joker kicks off this new imprint.
WB has been trying for years to craft a live-action film featuring the supernatural heroes of the DCU. That project has been alternately dubbed "Heaven Sent," "Dark Universe" and most recently "Justice League Dark." The film is still in development, but at this point we're not overly optimistic about Justice League Dark ever seeing the light of day.
Maybe the best solution is for WB to start slow and focus on a smaller cast of supernatural characters. So why not a horror-flavored buddy cop starring man-turned-monster Swamp Thing and supernatural trickster John Constantine. Both characters have starred in movies before (to varying levels of success), but both deserve another shot on the big screen. Comic readers probably know that Constantine actually debuted during the course of Alan Moore's legendary Saga of the Swamp Thing run, so these two have a strong dynamic that dates back decades at this point.
Again, it may be that the best way for WB to introduce moviegoers to this corner of the DCU is to start slow and stick to a small, relatively recognizable cast. There's no reason a Swamp Thing/Constantine team-up can't blossom into something bigger.
DC has a rich history of "Elseworlds" comics - stories that offer alternate universe takes on iconic heroes. Gotham by Gaslight is the comic that started it all. This 1989 one-shot offered a steampunk-flavored take on the Batman mythos, one where Bruce Wayne battles Jack the Ripper in 19th Century Gotham City.
Clearly, WB is banking heavily on the Batman franchise as the studio continues to expand the DCEU. If we're going to reach the point where we're seeing multiple Batman movies per year, should they at least be as unique and different as possible? Gotham by Gaslight would easily stand out from DC's in-continuity Batman movies and allow a talented director and cinematographer to really show off their vision.
Years before they created a little movie called The Matrix, Lilly and Lana Wachowski wrote a screenplay for a Plastic Man movie. Obviously, that project never came to pass, but the thought of the Wachowskis taking on one of DC's wackiest and most visually dynamic heroes is very enticing. Why not give them another shot at bringing Eel O'Brien to life, both as writers and directors?
Plastic Man is basically a turbo-charged Mister Fantastic, able to stretch his body into any shape his mind can conjure. While never one of DC's more popular heroes, he's maintained a cult following over the decades and enjoyed a recent resurgence thanks to DC's Injustice: Gods Among Us tie-in comics. With his crazy powers and complicated psychology, Plas seems like a perfect candidate for the one-off DC movie treatment. It's past time the Wachowskis tackle a superhero movie.
WB has taken a lot of flak for the dark, brooding tone of the DCEU. That's to be expected for a shared superhero universe that uses The Dark Knight Returns as one of its main building blocks. Wonder Woman seems to mark a turning point for the DCEU, as does Joss Whedon being hired to direct the Batgirl movie., But if WB really wants to reach out to fans who crave a more hopeful, optimistic vision of the DCU, they could do far worse than adapting Darwyn Cooke's seminal DC: The New Frontier.
The New Frontier is basically a love letter to DC's '60s-era Silver Age stories. A period piece that spans from 1945 to 1960, The New Frontier explores how Golden Age heroes like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman join forces with a new generation like Green Lantern, Flash and Martian Manhunter to battle an alien threat and embrace a brighter future for humanity.
New Frontier was already adapted into one of DC's direct-to-video animated films, though its straightforward animation style didn't quite capture the impact of Cooke's Fleischer Studios-inspired art style. As with Gotham by Gaslight, The New Frontier is the perfect opportunity for a strong visual storyteller to leave their mark on the DCU and craft a very different sort of Justice League adventure.
A number of DC's Elseworlds stories are predicated on the idea that Superman's space pod crashed somewhere other than rural Kansas. Most of those would make for good one-off DC movies, but we're inclined to go with the most well-known of the bunch, Superman: Red Son. In the world of Red Son, Superman instead lands in Soviet Russia at the height of the Cold War, eventually becoming the figurehead of the world's dominant super-power.
Red Son is a fascinating story on a number of levels, from the "What If?" quality of the alternate history setting to the fundamental ways in which Superman's relationships with characters like Lois Lane, Batman, Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman are altered. And despite the dark overtones of the story, Red Son is ultimately a very optimistic take on the Man of Steel.
Interestingly, Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts recently pitched a Red Son adaptation to WB and was rejected. Maybe the studio is willing to rethink that decision in light of the new Joker movie? Writer Mark Millar's other Hollywood adaptations have had a pretty solid track record at the box office, and we don't see why Red Son would be any different.
In 2006, writer Grant Morrison added a major new wrinkle to the Batman franchise with the introduction of Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul. This hotheaded, arrogant young boy went on to become the new Robin and play an integral role in Morrison's seven-year-long Batman saga. Damian has already made the jump to DC's animated movie universe, so why not the live-action movies?
WB really has two options with this one. They can craft a movie set in the present, with Batman first meeting the son he never knew and doing his best to become a father and teach Damian to rise above the influence of his mother and grandfather. Alternatively, the move could draw from some of the more esoteric portions of Morrison's run by jumping ahead and exploring the dark, hellish future where an adult Damian has taken up the mantle of Batman himself. That second option would be one way to keep Son of Batman from interfering with the in-continuity DCEU movies.
Either way, Damian is a great character who deserves his shot on the big screen. And given how little we've seen of Robin in live-action since 1997's Batman & Robin.
Sandman is another beloved DC property that WB has been struggling for years to bring to the big screen. Recently, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to the project, but dropped out in March 2016 due to creative differences. Sandman may be another case where it's better to start slow before diving into the massive deep end that is Neil Gaiman's fantasy epic.
As with the Swamp Thing/Constantine idea. a better option may be to start out with an adaptation of the mini-series Death: The High Cost of Living. An intimate story by normal Sandman standards, The High Cost of Living focuses on the titular character as she spends 24 hours living life as an ordinary mortal. It's a very character-driven story that only lightly delves into the complex mythology of Death and her Endless siblings.
Gaiman has actually written a screenplay adaptation and expressed an interest in directing the project himself. And while the Death movie has been dormant for several years now, we'd like to think WB may be taking another look at the project these days.
Batman has arguably the greatest rogues gallery in comics. There's a reason characters like Joker and the "Gotham City Sirens" trio of Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman are being given their own spinoff movies. But they're not the only Bat-villains that deserve the solo spotlight. We think it';'s time Two-Face is given his moment in the spotlight.
Two-Face is easily one of Batman's most psychologically complex foes, in part because he started his career as a crusader for justice in Gotham City before his tragic downfall. We think an adaptation of 2006's "Face the Face" storyline would be a great way of exploring the complicated duality of Harvey Dent. Face the Face took place during a period when Harvey's trademark scars had been healed and he was doing his best to turn over a new leaf. In fact, Batman trusted the reformed Harvey enough to train him in the vigilante arts and leave him in charge of Gotham City while Batman and his sidekicks took an extended vacation. But Batman returned to find Harvey implicated in a series of murders, he was forced to question whether a villain can ever truly be redeemed.
Back in 2008, before the Arrowverse or the DCEU existed, David Goyer and Justin Marks penned a screenplay called Green Arrow: Escape From Super MAX. Basically the DC version of a prison film, Super MAX would have dealt with Oliver Queen being framed and imprisoned in a maximum security facility with a who's who list of metahuman villains.
It's a great premise for a Green Arrow movie, but sadly, WB had bigger priorities. That said, now seems like the perfect time to revive the Super MAX concept. Sooner or later, WB will want to introduce a big screen version of Green Arrow, but the challenge is doing so in a way that doesn't step on the toes of The CW's Arrow. This is one way to tackle a very different sort of Green Arrow story, one that doesn't have to fit into any particular continuity and would allow WB to spotlight whatever villains they choose. Done well, Super MAX could easily succeed where the villain-centric Suicide Squad failed.
Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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