One of the stars of the canceled Wonder Twins movie is finally sharing why that DC project won’t see the light of day!
The history of the DCEU’s rise and fall should make for a fascinating book one day. In the wake of the Snyderverse, DC was making plans for more movies that would spotlight some lesser-known characters in the DC Comics library.
Among them was Wonder Twins, a movie intended to be released exclusively on HBO Max, much like Batgirl. It was to be written and directed by Adam Sztykiel (Black Adam), with KJ Apa and Isabel May starring in the title roles.
However, when David Zaslav took charge of Warner Bros. Discovery, he quickly set about canceling numerous projects and infamously shelved the completed Batgirl before it could be released. Wonder Twins was another such axed project before James Gunn took over the DC Universe film slate.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Isabel May (now starring in Scream 7) is sharing details at last on what happened to the film and her experience with the pre-production.
"Most things fall apart, and you have to be okay with that. You have to be capable of just taking the punch on the chin, standing back up, walking forward, and stepping into the next one.”
May further clarified that it was indeed Zaslav’s own call to axe the project just as she was getting a fitting for the superhero suit.
"You get flown out, you try on costumes, and suddenly, like a week after the announcement, you get a call from the director saying, ‘Well, David Zaslav is in power now and all of these things have shifted and he doesn't wanna do this film.’ And, like, I get it. I'm not upset about it or anything. I get it. It's just the way that the business functions and it's all OK, but suddenly this thing that was gonna be a part of your future for a certain amount of time is suddenly just not there. So now you have to reassess."
It’s too bad as this might have been a fun offbeat film.
First introduced in the 1977 Superfriends cartoon show, the Wonder Twins are Zan and Jayna, twins from the planet Exxor. The pair are famous for their powers of touching fists while declaring “Wonder Twins powers, activate!” That allows Jayna to take the form of any animal, while Zan becomes any form of liquid. The pair works with other heroes alongside pet alien monkey Gleek.
The pair were used in the cartoon with some appearances in the main DCU, including a 2019 maxi-series. The movie sounds like it would have been a light comedy of the siblings on Earth, adjusting to the planet and a special effects showcase.
May admitted she wasn’t familiar with the characters at all, but “people told me it was a big gig and I went with it. I thought it was actually really funny, and I really liked the creative team behind it. I've worked with KJ since then."
As a direct-to-streaming film, the budget likely wouldn’t have been that large, and the film was set to start just when the plug was pulled. It’s not as bad as the Batgirl shelving, but it's still annoying. What could have been a low-key but fun DC Comics movie was ended thanks to a new boss taking over.