{"id":284705,"date":"2026-02-15T02:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T02:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:30:07","slug":"emerald-fennell-on-why-dc-studios-didnt-want-to-conjure-her-demented-zatanna-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284705\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerald Fennell on why DC Studios didn’t want to conjure her “demented” Zatanna movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been banging this drum for the better part of five years, but DC Studios<\/a> made a mistake when they shelved Emerald Fennell\u2019s Zatanna movie. I honestly can\u2019t think of a better filmmaker to capture the Princess of Prestidigitation in a \u201cdemented\u201d<\/a> film that\u2019s just as sexy and strange as Zatanna Zatarra. Here\u2019s an idea, DC: Let Fennell make her movie, then release it under the DC Elseworlds initiative, like Clayface or The Batman. Done. You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n

Fennell, whose steamy retelling of Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, is in theaters now (check out our review<\/a>), is an excellent showcase of how the Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director brings twisted characters to life with believability and intrigue. While visiting the Happy Sad Confused podcast<\/a>, Fennell opened up about why DC passed on her Zatanna movie, and again, I can\u2019t help but feel like the studio made a mistake.<\/p>\n

Fennell on what happened with her Zatanna movie<\/p>\n

According to Fennell, her version of Zatanna was \u201cprobably too far away from the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time,\u201d she said on the\u00a0Happy Sad Confused<\/a>\u00a0podcast. \u201cAnd the thing is, I think what I can\u2019t help but\u2014and then, I\u2019d just finished\u00a0A Promising Young Woman, and there was this huge thing in this world I\u2019d never operated in. And again, it was a kind of superhero movie, and I was like, \u2018How do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?\u2019 Which is sort of the woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, so it\u2019s a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown. And in terms of what that means, I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fennell continued, \u201cIt was really dark. I haven\u2019t read it for a really long time, because I found it really difficult. Because, also the thing is, I love JJ [Abrams] so much, and he took a chance offering me to do it, and I really wanted to deliver something amazing for them. And I always felt like I hadn\u2019t quite maybe delivered the thing that they wanted. So, I haven\u2019t read it since, and I wonder if I read it now, I\u2019d be more generous toward myself. But I felt like, I wished I\u2019d been able to deliver the thing they wanted. They were really lovely about it, it\u2019s even just remembering. You\u2019re making me remember scenes, I\u2019m like, \u2018Nobody would have made that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Give me the script! I want to read it!<\/p>\n

Ugh! I want to read Fennell\u2019s script for her Zatanna movie so badly! I positively love the character and think there\u2019s room in the DCU under James Gunn and Peter Safran\u2019s guard for this movie not only to exist but to do well with audiences. Would it be a little out of left field? Sure, but so was Todd Phillips\u2019 Joker. Plus, what did DC think they were going to get when they asked Fennell to give the character a whirl? Of course, she\u2019s going to put her signature on it. Did they think it was going to be anything else? Fools!<\/p>\n

\"JoBlo<\/p>\n

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Source:
\n Happy Sad Confused Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been banging this drum for the better part of five years, but DC Studios made a mistake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,4793,22375,156,111,139,69,9250,158675],"class_list":{"0":"post-284705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-dc-studios","10":"tag-emerald-fennell","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-superhero","16":"tag-zatanna"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}