Zach Cregger has revealed that he has written a story set in the DC universe. Known initially for his comedy work, such as returning sketch show The Whitest Kids U’Know, this will be another genre the writer/director hopes to dip into. Cregger is currently making news due to the success of his new horror film Barbarian, which has received much attention since its release.
This isn’t the first time Cregger has been influenced to write something based on an existing piece of media. When writing the current box office hit Barbarian, the director took influence from a book written by a security consultant, The Gift of Fear, which details the tiny red flags in men’s behavior towards women and why they shouldn’t be ignored. Paying attention to the voice inside and reacting to situations by instinct is the primary motivation for Barbarian’s protagonist Tess (Georgina Campbell). She finds herself in a potentially threatening environment when an Airbnb mistake means she must share her rental house with a stranger, played by Bill Skarsgård.
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Talking to The Boo Crew, the creator disclosed that he is working on a new and incredibly ambitious horror idea, one that is entirely different from Barbarian, but he has also written a “Batman-adjacent thing” which he would love to make if given a chance. No further details about the narrative or which characters are included in this story have been revealed. Still, Cregger has commented that although he’s not specifically into the superhero genre in general, this is an idea that he is obsessed with. Plans to make it are also not currently confirmed:
“The thing I’d love to do next, I actually wrote a movie that takes place in the DC Universe, believe it or not, which is so normally not my thing, I’m not a superhero guy, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about this one story, that kind of takes place in like a Batman-adjacent thing. And so I wrote it and I’m like utterly obsessed with it, so one day… I want to make that”
With the ever-changing landscape of Batman stories coming to the big screen, the most recent version being The Batman this year, which saw Robert Pattinson playing the titular character, there are always opportunities for alternative writers and directors to take a stab at telling the caped crusader’s tale or those in his peripheral. A firm example of this would be Joker, which, although not related to the DCEU (unofficially titled), is within the DC movie universe and uses characters from the comics and films to tell a variation of the Joker’s origin story. There have also been announcements concerning spin-off tv shows for other Batman villains, such as The Penguin, which will be coming to HBO Max in the future. This opens up further opportunities for creators like Cregger to offer a fresh perspective on existing DC characters by simply following the trends of what is to come.
However, as he explained in his interview, Zach Cregger is not a superhero fan. Those not partial to a battle between good and evil featuring billionaires with gadgets or super-beings with powers may not have the knowledge and expertise it takes to bring these beloved stories to the movies, causing aggravation and concern among those who have a vast knowledge of the pre-existing context. In comparison, Barbarian has seen immense cinematic success so far since its release in the US, proving that Cregger has the capabilities to tell a story well. Taking a chance on a creator from a different background can produce surprising results. It would be hoped that if the writer/director was given the opportunity, he could do exactly this with a Batman-related narrative too.