Blackest Night (cancelled)

***Blackest Night*** was a film and a mini-series that was considered for the Post-Justice League V slate.

## Overview

During the late 2030s, Matt Reeves came to WB with an idea for an adaptation, the famous *Blackest Night* mini-series written by Geoff Johns. He met with Johns and they discussed various ideas for the adaptation and what they would need to do to tweak it to make it fit in the DCEU. Johns for the most part was uninterested in the adaptation and wanted to focus on things outside of the DCEU, but he gave Reeves his blessing. He met with the higher-ups who weren't extremely interested either, as it would've had to feature the actors from the *Justice League* films and they wanted to focus on smaller characters for the Post-Justice League V slate. Reeves then stated that they could easily make it an Elseworld story and it would be part of a separate continuity with different actors. They were now more interested in the project and eventually, subsequently greenlit it for a 2042 release date. Reeves was set to write and direct the film, as well as casting actors who were featured in other projects so there wouldn't be the hassle of finding new actors. The budget of the film was set at $200 million and Reeves was in the middle of casting the film when he was notified that due to the high budget, they were gonna cancel the film, and greenlight the much lower budgeted *Justice League Dark 2* instead. However, they did offer Reeves a mini-series for that same year with a much lower budget. While Reeves did seriously consider the offer, he ultimately turned it down that *Blackest Night* had to be a big, epic scale film, and he didn't think it could work as a mini-series. So he subsequently left the project. *Orphan* was made in that slot instead.

## Plot

Reeves stated that his *Blackest Night* adaptation would've been very epic and scale and "at least 4 hours long". While DC executives were aware of this, and were ready to let him have his creative vision, it was entirely possible that they cancelled the film because of this, in addition to the high budget. Reeves stated that he would've incorporated ideas from *Rebirth* and *Sinestro Corps War* as a prelude for the film before getting into the main storyline. It would've adapted the story fairly closely, as he didn't have to worry about continuity with the main DCEU. There were small tweaks but Reeves said it was tighten the story and keep the pace flowing.

## Cast

Reeves only cast 2 actors in the film with them being:

* Robert Pattinson as Green Lantern/Hal Jordan
* Garrett Hedlund as The Flash/Barry Allen

The other actors Reeves considered for roles are:

* Travis Fimmel as Hawkman/Carter Hall
* Alexa Davalos as Hawkgirl/Shiera Hall
* Fionn Whitehead as Kid Flash/Wally West
* Tobias Menzies as Lex Luthor
* Ben Barnes as Atom/Ray Palmer

However, they were not cast before the project was cancelled, as well as any other characters not getting a consideration either.

## Reception

When Reeves was doing press for another film of his, he revealed many of his ideas for the film, as well as some of the casting choices. It was met with a lot of praise from fans, and they urged him to release the script but he ultimately decided not to, wanting to keep his unmade work private.

## Legacy

Matt Reeves went on to write and direct *Superman: Distant Fires* but Reeves claimed that he didn't much care for the final product and considered the story to be "bland and weak".