Over the last few weeks, rumors have been swirling about a DC Universe project that Barbarian and Weapons director Zach Cregger planned to pitch to Warner Bros. So far, that hasn’t happened, but the filmmaker has essentially confirmed the story’s existence in a new piece with THR, saying that he hopes to do it after he finishes with the Resident Evil reboot.
So the gist of the story, reportedly titled Henchmen, would involve Joker and Harley Quinn, but they wouldn’t be the central characters. Instead, the focus would be on one of Joker’s henchmen who earns street cred around Gotham when he luckily manages to incapacitate Batman.
Cregger calls it his “favorite” script of all, and that he wrote it after the surprising success of Barbarian in 2022.
The plot sounds similar to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series titled “The Man Who Killed Batman”, in which a small-time hood seemingly kills the Caped Crusader accidentally, catapulting him to fame.
That means the Dark Knight could appear in the movie, which would be interesting since DC Studios hasn’t named an actor to play him yet. Nor have they cast a Joker actor. THR’s Heatvision blog notes that Margot Robbie could return as Harley Quinn, but it’s unlikely. I find that pretty disappointing since she is fantastic in that role.
All of this said, James Gunn and Peter Safran aren’t going to screw around with the Batman IP. With Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel gearing up, you aren’t likely to hear anything about the character entering the DCU anytime soon. There’s always that outside hope from fans that Robert Pattinson’s version of the character will enter the main continuity, too. Gunn and Safran know of Cregger’s interest in working with them.
Cregger would be an awesome addition to the DCU, though, so let’s hope Gunn sets up a meeting with him. They’re already venturing into horror with the Clayface movie, so why not let Cregger play around with Joker or another of the dark, monstrous figures running around Gotham?
