Emerald Fennell (Saltburn, Wuthering Heights) was first attached to a Zatanna movie in 2021. Part of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams' Justice League Dark slate, Zatanna was ultimately scrapped along with several other DCEU projects when DC Studios was formed.
The closest we got to seeing what Abrams had planned for this supernatural corner of the DC Universe was a Constantine TV series that got as far as casting, eyeing Gangs of London's Sope Dirisu to star.
Talking to Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Fennell revealed new details about her plans for Zatanna and explained why the movie was unlikely to happen even before James Gunn and Peter Safran's DCU reboot.
"I think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time," the filmmaker shared. "I just finished Promising Young Woman, and there was this huge thing in this world that I'd never operated in. I was like, 'Okay, how do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?' [I was a] woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown."
"So it's a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, I would say. I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre. It was really dark," Fennell continued. "I haven't read it for a really long time because I found it really difficult."
"I love JJ so much, and he took a chance on offering me to do it, and I really wanted to deliver something amazing for them, and I always felt like I hadn't quite delivered the thing that they wanted," the director added, confirming she would be open to taking a crack at a project like Wonder Woman if DC Studios were to come calling.
Fennell also said she hasn't read the script since writing it, but wonders if she'd view it in a more positive light now that a few years have passed.
Zatanna Zatara is a powerful half-Homo Magi sorcerer, whose distinctive magical abilities involve her speaking incantations backwards to focus her spells' power. She uses her vast magical abilities to fight evil, following in the footsteps of her father, the Golden Age hero Zatara. She has also been a member of the Justice League and the Sentinels of Magic.
There's been no indication that DC Studios has plans for Zatanna or the Justice League Dark. Before Abrams attempted to bring the team to our screens, Frankenstein helmer Guillermo del Toro had been attached to a movie starring the team. He's since said the door is now closed on that.
Are you disappointed that we didn't get to see Fennell's take on Zatanna?