Is Ava DuVernay’s New Gods Movie Part Of The DCEU?

From where we’re standing, Warner Bros. has a lot of projects brewing in various stages of development. There are the 100% confirmed ones, of course – those being Wonder Woman 2, Aquaman, Shazam!, Suicide Squad 2, Flashpoint  – while they’ve also got a number of movies that may or may not happen, like Nightwing, Batgirl, Gotham City Sirens, etc. In fact, the studio has a bad habit of announcing films and then never getting them off the ground, and today, we have another to add to the list: The New Gods.

Yes, as you surely know by now, DC and Warner Bros. have hired A Wrinkle in Time director Ava DuVernay to helm a film for them based on Jack Kirby’s beloved comic book creation. For those unfamiliar with the property – and that’s probably most of you as the New Gods’ history is a bit complex – here’s a refresher, courtesy of DC:

The New Gods, or the “Fourth World,” as it’s frequently known, were created by legendary comic book creator Jack Kirby, and initially debuted in a trilogy of related comics written and drawn by Kirby that were published in the very early 1970s: New Gods, Forever People and Mister Miracle. None of these comics ran for very long, but together they formed the groundwork to a universe with near limitless potential.

The New Gods are exactly that—they’re new gods. They came into existence after the world of the old gods, the gods of classical mythology, was destroyed during Ragnarok. The world of these known deities was split and became two separate planets, forever linked, but utterly different. One is called New Genesis and the other is Apokolips.

Now, as exciting as this all is, the one question fans have been asking is whether The New Gods will be part of the DC Extended Universe? It’s a good question, too, as there’s been no clarification on the matter. Warner Bros. hasn’t made an official announcement just yet and we’ve seen conflicting reports – Deadline claims that it’s its own thing, while Variety says it’s part of the cinematic universe.

If we had to guess, it’s going to fall under the DCEU umbrella. I mean, how could it not? Given that Steppenwolf appeared in Justice League, we know that both the planet Apokolips and the New Gods themselves exist in this universe. Darkseid himself was even supposed to show up in the film, before he got cut.

We imagine that the plan is probably to use DuVernay’s pic to now introduce audiences to the aforementioned villain and his corner of the DC universe before bringing him, and perhaps some of his supporting players, into the fold for Justice League 2. By which point, we’ll all be quite familiar with the big bad and eagerly anticipating his battle with Batman, Superman and the rest of the gang.

Chalk that up as speculation for now, but it seems like the most probable route for DC to head down at this stage, and as more information on The New Gods surfaces, we’ll be sure to let you know.