Warner Bros. is making a movie about DC’s New Gods with Ava DuVernay

Warner Bros. is making a movie based on DC Comics’ New Gods, the fantastic world of alien heroes and villains created by comics king Jack Kirby, and it’s working with acclaimed director Ava DuVernay to make it happen.

DuVernay will direct the New Gods movie, according to reports from Variety and Deadline. The director is best known for her work on Selma, which was nominated for multiple Golden Globes and Academy Awards, and the recently released adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. There’s not much information on DuVernay’s take on New Gods, though Deadline indicates the project does not yet have a screenwriter.

On Twitter, DuVernay responded to reports of the news with a quote from Kirby himself.

DC’s New Gods can easily stand apart from the rest of the DC cinematic universe. The pantheon of gods created by Jack Kirby in the early ’70s was envisioned as an entirely new pillar of the DC Universe, known as The Fourth World.

And while the big bad guy of last year’s disappointing Justice League, Steppenwolf, is part of Kirby’s Fourth World, the New Gods have remained largely untapped in DC movies.

Kirby created the New Gods as literal gods who hail from twin planets: the idyllic New Genesis, ruled by the benevolent Highfather, and the hellish Apokolips, ruled by the villainous Darkseid. Kirby’s cast of good and evil (and supposedly neutral) New Gods includes an entire array of enduringly popular DC characters, including Orion, Metron, Granny Goodness, Mister Miracle and Big Barda, who DuVernay called out last year as her favorite superhero.

For more on the New Gods, read our story on Justice League’s take on Darkseid, which delves further into the creation and myths of Kirby’s New Gods.