Cancelled Comic Book Movies That You Wished Happened

[Detective Conan]

Today is the ten year anniversary of the announced released date of the cancelled Spider-Man 4. Because of this day, it got me thinking of dead comic book movie projects that I wished happened & it sparked the idea of making this thread to discuss this subject.

What comic book film that was in production or at the very least was close to getting made that all of sudden ultimately never got off the ground for whatever reason that you wish you could’ve seen brought to fruition?

For me, I must express sadness that we never get to see George Miller’s Justice League Mortal even if in hindsight they probably dodged a bullet with Hammer as Batman considering the recent allegations against him. The plot sounds pretty wild and out there but also intriguing.


I’m also sad we’ll never get to see Peyton Reed’s Fantastic Four film? That would’ve been cool & interesting to see, partly because I like the A Hard Day’s Night approach to the property and I thought Reed’s idea of having the F4 fight giant monsters in broad daylight would be perfectly in keeping with the source material.

What say you guys?

 

[Spidey_62]

I'm pouring one out for SM4 today.

Off the top of my head I think JL Mortal woulda been crazy cool, Miller is an amazing director. Not a fan of Snyder's DCU, feel like I woulda much preferred the stuff Miller was thinking. Although Armie Hammer as Batman in retrospect is a dodged bullet lol. Superman Lives by Burton with Nic Cage would've been an insane movie for the ages. That one I wish would've happened. It's a bummer a Supes movie never happened in the 90s cause it would've led to that.

Really wish Robert Rodriguez' Madman movie from Universal based on the Mike Allred comics would've happened in the late 90s. I've seen a bunch of Allred's storyboards for it and it woulda been glorious and a nice fit for Rodriguez. I'm shocked that book still hasn't been adapted into a movie or a TV show/cartoon. Option rights reverted back to Allred in the 2010s.

 

[chintai80]

nic cage superman, hellboy 3 with del toro, and sm4 with raimi.

 

[MbJ]

Superman Lives
George Miller's Justice League
Edgar Wright's Ant-Man

 

[Da-Scribe]

Noah Hawley's Doctor Doom, Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max, Canon Film's Spider-Man

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Not even gonna lie, a part of me was curious to see Fox’s Gambit movie. Even if I knew it would be trash.

Also still bummed about not seeing Silver & Black spinoff or Gotham City Sirens not coming to fruition.

 

[Zarex]

I'd be interested in seeing the movie versions of the two MCU film projects that were relegated to TV - Runaways and Inhumans.

 

[Calvin Ellis]

Zack Snyder's Justice League 2 & 3 and Man of Steel 2 and Ben Affleck The Batman.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I dunno.

Most of these movies don't seem that great to me.

 

[Roose Bolton]

James Mangold’s X-23.

 

[Luigi]

GDT's Hellboy 3

Edgar Wright's Ant-Man

 

[Drizzle]

Spider-Man 4 - I think Raimi deserved another shot after how Avi Arad was strong arming him during Spider-Man 3's production

Matt Reeves' Batman (Ben Affleck) - I think Affleck can be a great Batman with the right director and as much as I'm looking forward to Pattinson's Batman, I'll still wonder what could have been.

Hellboy 3

Edgar Wright's Ant-Man

Patty Jenkins' Thor: The Dark World

 

[Deck Rickard]

I’m mixed on Spider-Man 4. I thought rebooting Spidey after SM3 was stupid and the Garfield movies are trash (even if Garfield himself was okay). But I wasn’t wild about Raimi’s ideas for SM4, and I worry that it might have felt awkward to carry on after the dumpster fire that was SM3 (especially after the Venom suit made Peter publicly look like a manipulative, abusive a**hole boyfriend to Mary Jane). Also, I worry than continuing the Raimi series might have meant more scenes of Kirsten Dunst singing, and no one wants that.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

GDT's Hellboy 3 top of the list for me.

But also Raimi's Spiderman 4 and Zack Snyder's Justice League 2 and 3 are up there.

 

[mclay18]

Also, I worry than continuing the Raimi series might have meant more scenes of Kirsten Dunst singing, and no one wants that.

Dunst's singing was fine. I had no problem with that.

Everyone else pretty summed up the canceled movies I'd see, Raimi's SM-4 and George Miller's JLM.

 

[Gothamsknight]

'nuff said

 

[Dark Raven]

I’m mixed on Spider-Man 4. I thought rebooting Spidey after SM3 was stupid and the Garfield movies are trash (even if Garfield himself was okay). But I wasn’t wild about Raimi’s ideas for SM4, and I worry that it might have felt awkward to carry on after the dumpster fire that was SM3 (especially after the Venom suit made Peter publicly look like a manipulative, abusive a**hole boyfriend to Mary Jane). Also, I worry than continuing the Raimi series might have meant more scenes of Kirsten Dunst singing, and no one wants that.

Probably more people in the world have seen Spider-Man 3 and know the character than Hank Pym and him hitting Janet in the comics, so this probably shows Peter as more abusive to a greater audience.



When MJ says " who are you?" after Peter back hands her, I hope this is not the same context that Awkwafina is saying that in the Shang Chi trailer.

 

[henzINNIT]

Spider-Man 4 I would have loved. It's probably the most notorious, having seemed set in stone and even getting a teaser poster. I was gutted when news broke, and pretty angry at Sony for quietly rebooting as Raimi was working on it. I'm not sure how the film would have gone in all honesty. I liked Malkovich as Vulture, but Raimi himself said he couldn't crack the story.

Hellboy 3 is probably a greater tragedy. It would have been nice to close out a trilogy and see more of the Hellboy world and Del Toro's brain.

Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' would have been a contender for the MCU's best film. The released version is in the bottom half.

 

[Dark Raven]

Spider-Man 4 I would have loved. It's probably the most notorious, having seemed set in stone and even getting a teaser poster. I was gutted when news broke, and pretty angry at Sony for quietly rebooting as Raimi was working on it. I'm not sure how the film would have gone in all honesty. I liked Malkovich as Vulture, but Raimi himself said he couldn't crack the story.

Hellboy 3 is probably a greater tragedy. It would have been nice to close out a trilogy and see more of the Hellboy world and Del Toro's brain.

Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' would have been a contender for the MCU's best film. The released version is in the bottom half.

Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' would have been a standalone movie as that's what he wanted, and it would've still been in pre-production even now instead of us getting Ant-Man 3. All that time spent to not even get something connected to the rest of the MCU.

 

[henzINNIT]

Edgar Wright's 'Ant-Man' would have been a standalone movie as that's what he wanted, and it would've still been in pre-production even now instead of us getting Ant-Man 3. All that time spent to not even get something connected to the rest of the MCU.

It's not like Edgar Wright's vision was not compatible with the MCU. He just didn't throw in a forced cameo from Falcon. And I'd take one great Ant-Man over two meh Ant-Man films.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Ant-Man is a movie where you can see the studio notes on screen. Wright probably took so look because Marvel had him shave down every single harsh edge.

 

[henzINNIT]

Ant-Man is a movie where you can see the studio notes on screen. Wright probably took so look because Marvel had him shave down every single harsh edge.

Exactly. For one it seemed they were dead against Scott having any grey in him what-so-ever, so he had to be a thief for a noble cause. Hank is also the soft and fluffiest bitter old man ever.

 

[Babillygunn]

I love Reed’s Ant-Man, but to each his own.

Right now I would say Ava Duvernay and Tom King’s Fourth World movie tops my list. Followed by Superman: Flyby.

 

[KiramidHead]

Ones I've read scripts for:

Batman Year One, if only for how silly and ridiculous crazy mechanic Bruce would have been.

Alex Cox's Doctor Strange - another weird, out there script with some neat sequences and visuals. Maybe a bit too Captain Planet in places but otherwise pretty good.

Chris Columbus' Fantastic Four, written by Michael France - would have been fun and cool, shame Fox was too cheap to make it.

Goyer's Flash - really did a great job establishing Wally West as the Flash, and had solid versions of The Turtle and Zoom.

Gambit - It was a fun superhero heist story, minus the last ten pages where it all falls apart.

Green Arrow: Escape from Supermax - Waller wasn't very well handled, but otherwise it was a neat idea.

Iron Man, the 1997 Fox version - full of crazy stuff and tons of neat villains, including MODOK.

Justice League Dark - the 2015 version before the rewrites

Punisher 2 with Thomas Jane - because it would have had a more consistent tone than whatever War Zone was going for.

Roger Avary's Sandman - really captured the first couple of arcs of the comic.

Sgt. Rock with Arnold Schwarzenegger - multiple strong drafts of a script were written, very much a straight faced, no nonsense war movie.

Superman Lives - the Kevin Smith version was fun, the others, not so much.

X-Men Origins: Magneto - sure we got a Magneto movie of sorts with First Class, but the script was a rock solid character piece.

 

[Deck Rickard]

They were going to do Sgt. Rock with Arnold? Wow I had never heard about this. Have to say, that’s one comic book character he 100% looks the part for.

Is that Spielberg Blackhawk movie still in the works?