Warner Bros. Exec Denies Superman: Red Son Speculation

Ever since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League were back-to-back disappointments for Warner Bros. financially, the question of what to do with Superman on the big screen has been somewhat up in the air. One of the most persistent rumors has been that the studio might attempt an adaptation of Mark Millar's Superman: Red Son, an Elseworlds story about a universe in which Superman crash-landed in Soviet Russia instead of the United States and helped tilt the balance of global power during the Cold War. Rumors have been circulating that the studio was interested in the movie for years, but they really heated up in 2017.

After the massive commercial success of Joker last year, those rumors started to swirl again, with the idea being that Warner Bros. was looking to do a number of stand-alone movies that would not necessarily connect to the shared universe established in movies like Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Aquaman. Again, Red Son came up.

The rumor makes some kind of sense, for sure: since Batman Begins, the idea that superheroes need to be darker and more grounded seems to be one of the guiding philosophies at Warner. The darker Superman of Red Son and the success that Millar has had in Hollywood both made Red Son kind of an obvious choice. But, not right now, according to DC Films president Walter Hamada.

"I think the possibility is there," Hamada said. "Our focus is great stories, so if we come across the right filmmaker with an interesting story, that doesn't work in our existing timeline, and it would work as an Elseworld, we would definitely explore that. We're not currently developing Red Son, so that isn't one of them, but when the right filmmaker or the right idea comes together, that's the beauty of [a] multiverse, is we can explore it. We can go down the road and take a shot at it....The answer is yes, there will be opportunities. That one is not one that we're currently exploring."

The multiverse will play a significant role in The Flash, which is currently in pre-production with It filmmaker Andy Muschietti. It seems likely, given the current state of DC's film slate, that the next Elseworlds-style feature fans will see (besides The Batman) will take place after the multiverse has been more explicitly established.

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