Will The New Gods Movie Adapt Tom King's Mister Miracle?

With the news that Heroes in Crisis writer Tom King will be co-writing The New Gods movie with filmmaker Ava DuVernay comes the question of just how much influence the Mister Miracle series by King and artist Mitch Gerads will have on the final project. The answer is, at this point, anybody's guess, but it seems fairly likely that King was chosen on the strength of Mister Miracle, and that elements of that series will play into the film to at least some extent. In addition to the obvious motivation for that -- it is an award-winning and best-selling book already -- there is something a little more practical to consider.

During his 2018 Spotlight panel at New York Comic Con, a fan asked whether King might follow up Mister Miracle with another foray into Jack Kirby's New Gods. King and Gerads both dismissed the idea, with King saying that he was done with that corner of the DC Universe and Gerads saying that, to him, Mister Miracle was their definitive statement on the New Gods. It did not (and does not) sound like King has several years' worth of content for The New Gods in the same way he does for Batman; it seems likely that his contribution to DuVernay's project will likely be treading much of the same ground as his work already has.

Back in December, not long after the project was first announced, DuVernay shared an image of the New Genesis royal family -- Highfather, Orion, Lightray, Mister Miracle, and Big Barda -- to her Twitter feed. Ever since then, there has been speculation that Mister Miracle and Big Barda would be major players in the movie, with fans assuming that King's take would help shape the characterization, since it had been years prior to the King/Gerads series since Mister Miracle had a popular series. In 2017, when asked who her favorite superhero was, DuVernay tweeted, "Big Barda. Many reasons."

One problem with incorporating Mister Miracle too directly? DC already has a reputation for dark and depressing superhero movies, and King himself has frequently joked that his superheroes like to stare out rain-soaked windows, a single tear drifting down their cheek. The series begins with Mister Miracle on the floor of his bathroom, having slit his own wrist and bleeding out near death. To take a colorful and over-the-top world like that of the New Gods and tell the story through the filter of a human guy struggling with PTSD could be magical -- just look at the comic -- or it could be a recipe for a movie that reinforces everything bad audiences and critics think about DC.

We should know more soon; The New Gods is in early production, with King and DuVernay apparently working on a screenplay now.