The Wonder Twins Movie Has Been Scrapped At HBO Max
"The Wonder Twins" movie has been officially scrapped, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move comes as new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav is changing things up, post-merger. This film is a casualty of the shakeup, despite the fact that it was ripe for a comic take in live-action. Not only did "The Wonder Twins" have a writer and director in Adam Sztykiel who worked on another DC property, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne Johnson, but it had also cast the leads.
KJ Appa who stars as Archie Andrews on "Riverdale" was set to play the role of Zan, the twin who can transform into different forms of water. Don't laugh. You can flow into cracks in rocks and split it by icing up. You could be a tsunami. Isabel May, who played the role of Elsa Dutton opposite Faith Hill and Tim McGraw in the Paramount+ series "1883," the "Yellowstone" prequel, was set to play the other twin, Jayna. She can turn into an animal. After watching her as Elsa, I would have loved to see what she could do with comedy. The film was supposed to begin filming this coming summer in Atlanta.
Wonder Twin powers ... deactivate?
According to the site, Zaslav's team is changing up the "programming strategy" for HBO Max, and "The Wonder Twins" had an estimated budget of $75 million. It was decided that this was too high for a streaming film. It makes sense that it was that much. If you're looking at a film about two superheroes that constantly transform into things that would require CGI, it's going to get a little pricey.
The Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna first appeared on Hanna-Barbera's "The All-New Super Friends Hour" animated series back in 1977. They showed up in comics, on Adult Swim, in "Super Friends," on "Teen Titans Go!" and even on shows like "Smallville" and "The Flash." They were sort of the joke of the DC superhero lineup, particularly after their Adult Swim appearance, but that could have played into a comedy film very well. They could have gone the "Deadpool" route with these two. I mean, you have two aliens from the planet Exxor, who become animals and water by saying, "Wonder Twin powers, activate," and have a pet monkey named Gleek who helps them fight crime. This is just begging for a funny film. Well, perhaps it will find another life as an animated series.