Ava DuVernay's New Gods Will Feature Iconic DC Comics Villains
The New Gods are going to face off with some old foes.
Ava DuVernay, who is directing the New Gods film for Warner Bros. and DC, recently revealed during a Twitter Q&A session the villains who will appear in the big-budget superhero movie. The filmmaker, the first woman of color to helm a live-action movie with a $100 million-plus budget with her 2018 feature A Wrinkle in Time, also teased an upcoming casting announcement for New Gods.
In two separate tweets, DuVernay confirmed that Darkseid and the Female Furies will appear in New Gods, which adapts the Jack Kirby-written comic series that takes place in the time after the war of the gods of classic mythology (the old gods), who establish two planets called New Genesis, led by Highfather, and Apokolips, led by Darkseid.
With a burning desire to conquer the universe and vanquish all who challenge him, Darkseid brings the war to Earth when he discovers that humans are the key to the all-powerful Anti-Life Equation that "mathematically proves that hope, love, and freedom are all meaningless and effectively destroys a person's free will," and allows anyone who uses it to control everyone and everything in existence.
That's a little introduction to Darkseid, the longtime rival of Highfather who has gone on to become one of Superman's greatest enemies. As for the Female Furies, they're an all-girl group of New Gods who are fanatic servants of Darkseid and members of Apokolips' elite strike force who made their debut in the February 1972 comic issue Mister Miracle #6. Granny Goodness, one of the "Lowlies" of Apokolips who was taken from her parents and trained to become a "Hound" of Darkseid, leads the Female Furies — which include Lashina, Mad Harriet, Stompa, Bernadeth, and Big Barda, the former Furies leader who defected to Earth to unite with her lover, the superhero Mister Miracle.
Mad Harriet was a disturbed child, and her penchant for violence and mischief impressed Granny Goodness as they recruited members of the girl gang. Lashina, a warrior goddess, became the field leader of the Female Furies after Barda left for Earth. An alien goddess, Bernadeth uses a "fahren-knife" ("driving knife" in German) to burn her victims from the inside out. Stompa, another goddess from outer space, also wields a unique weapon to defeat her opponents: anti-matter boots that make her already-strong legs even more powerful, using them to crush her victims or create earthquakes that rattle the Earth.
Being blunt here, hearing that New Gods will feature Darkseid and the Female Furies is kickass. What's even better is that DuVernay is a massive fan of the villains, revealing on Twitter, "How could any self-respecting Barda fan not include the The Furies?! I'm looking forward to them so much."
The characters are in caring and capable hands with DuVernay, who is already dreaming up a wishlist for who she'd like to star in the film. Also posting on Twitter, DuVernay teased that there's a "99.9% chance" that an actor from When They See Us, the Emmy-nominated Netflix miniseries about the 1989 Central Park jogger case that DuVernay directed and co-wrote, will land a major role in New Gods.
"In each of my narrative projects since my first film entitled I WILL FOLLOW, I bring over an actor from the last project I made. So, yes, there is a 99.9% chance this will happen again," DuVernay tweeted when a fan asked if someone from When They See Us would land a New Gods gig. She kept a tight lip on who that could be, but something tells us that DuVernay could be eyeing breakout actor Jharrel Jerome for the forthcoming flick.
Another reason why Darkseid and the Female Furies being the villains of New Gods is killer news? It means that DC fans will finally get to see Darkseid on the big screen after he was but a flash in the pan of Justice League and only hinted at in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice via gauzy dream sequences. When original Justice League director Zack Snyder was still on board the project, prior to exiting from his post following a family tragedy and passing the torch to Joss Whedon, Darkseid was meant to feature quite prominently. That didn't end up happening, of course, as Darkseid was slashed down from the main villain to a cameo. His henchman, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), wound up being the big bad of Justice League. There exists additional footage of actor Ray Porter as Darkseid that was removed from Whedon's version of the film, which many fans believe is included on the all-too-famous "Snyder Cut" of Justice League that has yet to see the light of day.
DuVernay would satisfy thousands (if not millions) of DC devotees by tapping Porter to play Darkseid in New Gods. Though the bright talent is keeping her mind open about who will play the New Gods, there's a chance she could be thinking of someone special play the nefarious Lord of Apokolips given that she's already quite confident that the film will feature someone from When They See Us. If that's the case, she could be having dessert before dinner — or focusing on the ne'er-do-wells before the do-gooders.
Dark Side is currently without a release date or an official cast, but DuVernay confirmed that the script is "in progress" as of July 30. Check back with Looper for updates on the pic as more info rolls out.