Ava DuVernay Celebrates 'New Gods' Announcement By Thanking Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby, the legendary comic book creator responsible for the creation of the New Gods, was on [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Jack Kirby, the legendary comic book creator responsible for the creation of the New Gods, was on filmmaker Ava DuVernay's mind tonight as she acknowledged the news of her upcoming New Gods movie with a Kirby quote on Twitter.

Since the news broke, DuVernay had been "liking" reactions on Twitter, but had not yet retweeted any of the many reports on the project or said anything directly about it. She still has not -- exactly -- but by tweeting a photo of Jack Kirby and an inspirational quote attributed to the artist, it seems she has made her first, cryptic, acknowledgment of the project.

"Our dreams make us large," she quotes Kirby, and thanks him, in a tweet you can see below.

Set after Ragnarok and the birth of a new generation of gods, The New Gods was part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World cycle of storytelling, along with Mister Miracle and The Forever People. The story pits the evil gods of Apokolips, led by Darkseid, against the bright and idealistic gods of New Genesis, led by Highfather.

Steppenwolf, the villain in last year's Justice League, is one of the New Gods and the uncle of Darkseid. Nevertheless, DuVernay's New Gods will be unrelated to the existing DC movies, and will presumably either omit Steppenwolf or use a more comics-accurate version of the character.

DuVernay has flirted with superhero movies in the past, but it never quite worked out. She famously declined to direct Black Panther, a job which then went to Creed filmmaker Ryan Coogler.

There is presumably millennia of history DuVernay can explore with these immortal figures that does not tie directly into the antics of Wonder Woman and Superman.

Mister Miracle is the son of Highfather, who was raised on Apokolips as a kind of mutally-assured destruction pact with Darkseid, who sent his son Orion to be raised on New Genesis. Miracle is perhaps the most marketable of all of the New Gods characters, along with his wife, Big Barda, and Orion himself.

Late last year, when asked who her favorite superhero was, DuVernay tweeted, "Big Barda. Many reasons." It seems possible, but not necessarily true, that DuVernay was working on New Gods at that point, since the Deadline report indicates that Warner Bros. does not yet have a screenwriter.

Mister Miracle and Big Barda star in one of DC's most acclaimed titles right now, Tom King and Mitch Gerads's Mister Miracle, and in yesterday's issue welcomed a baby into the world.

The theatrical cut of Justice League is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital with a couple of deleted scenes and some documentary material. The DC Extended Universe continues with Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam! on April 5, 2019, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.

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