10 Unbelievable Comic Book Movies That Almost Happened, From Batman Meets Godzilla To Schwarzenegger’s Watchmen

Some of the most fascinating comic book movies are the ones that never got made, with many fascinating ideas for superhero stories never seeing the light of day. In a world of popular and brand-safe films like the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, it’s becoming rarer and rarer for stories in the superhero space to harness the weird ideas of some of Hollywood’s best and brightest. This wasn’t always the case, however, with many planned comic book movie films never coming to fruition despite their interesting ideas.

There are many reasons why these movies were never able to manifest. Sometimes, their premises were simply too strange to sell studios, but more often then not, they fell through due to creative differences, licensing, or scheduling conflicts. Whatever the case, some of the most famous canceled superhero movies are also some of the most compelling and hard to believe.

10 Godzilla Meets Batman

More of a canceled Godzilla film than a canceled Batman film

Batman is no stranger to big-name crossovers in the comics and cartoons, with everyone from The Predator to The Scooby-Doo Gang crossing paths with the Caped Crusader at one point or another. But this type of big-brand synergy has never made it to live-action movies before, with the sole exception of Toho and Greenway Production’s Batman Meets Godzilla, formulated in 1966. The idea would piggyback off of the success of Adam West’s Batman TV show and spin-off film, bringing back the same cast.

The plot for the film revolved around Batman, Robin, and Batgirl taking down a dangerous mad scientist using Godzilla for his own ends. The best part of this scrapped project would’ve been the finale, which saw Batman scale Godzilla’s back to plant a bomb on him powerful enough to send the King of the Monsters up to outer space. This planned joint American-Japanese production is easily one of the coolest canceled Godzilla movie ideas, let alone canceled superhero movie ideas.

9 James Cameron’s Spider-Man

Sam Raimi’s film almost wasn’t the first Spider-Man blockbuster

Many bigwigs in Hollywood had their eye on Spider-Man long before the plucky horror director Sam Raimi was able to get his hands on the valuable IP, creating one of the most iconic superhero trilogies ever made. Once upon a time, it was none other than the legendary James Cameron who set his sights on everyone’s favorite wall-crawling, friendly-neighborhood hero, with some interesting ideas on how Spider-Man should operate. Spider-Man would’ve been played by Leonardo DiCaprio, already an industry darling by the time of the planned film.

Besides a healthy dose of James Cameron’s iconic lens flares, this movie would’ve differed from Sam Raimi’s version in a few key ways. Sandman, Electro, and Doc Ock would all have made it into the movie as villains, with none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the latter. The canned film also allegedly contained a scene in which Spider-Man and Mary Jane did the horizontal (or in some Spider-Man cases, vertical) tango on the Brooklyn Bridge — Not exactly the spitting image of the modern wholesome perception of Peter Parker.

8 George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal

Would’ve been a strikingly unique vision for the Justice League

Visionary Australian director George Miller is known for having some incredible variety in his unique filmmaking style. From the heartwarming hilarity of Babe 2: Pig in the Big City to the unbridled adrenaline of Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller’s films might not be for everyone, but they’re wildly popular with the audiences they are able to find. That makes it all the more tragic that his take on the Justice League was never able to come to fruition.

Other than the classic “Big Three”, Miller’s League would’ve included The Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter, with the latter getting some incredible concept art. Justice League: Mortal would’ve pitted the crew of DC’s most iconic team against Maxwell Lord and Talia al Ghul, who almost destroy the League with an army of cyborgs. The film was to end with The Flash making a grand sacrifice to save the day. Sadly, in the wake of The Dark Knight‘s success, the project was scrapped in favor of similar solo films.

7 Canon Films’ Spider-Man Horror Movie

A wild concept for the first Spider-Man movie

Even further back in history than James Cameron’s Spider-Man concept, the webslinging hero had a movie pitch as early as 1985 that nearly came to fruition. Unbelievably, the first Spider-Man movie was almost a horror film, with Tobe Hooper, the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, slated to helm the project. Tom Cruise was eyed for Peter Parker, making for an incredibly bold and not-at-all comic-accurate film for Spider-Man’s first theatrical outing.

Apparently, the idea for Spider-Man to be more of a horror film was the result of a miscommunication on behalf of the planned film’s producers, Canon Films, infamous for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The production company misunderstood Spider-Man as being a character akin to Jeff Goldblum’s Brundle in The Fly, who is terrifyingly transformed into a spider-human hybrid by a mad scientist. The film would’ve ended with the monstrous Peter Parker fighting off the scientist’s other animal-hybrid creations.

6 Clint Eastwood’s Batman Beyond

One of the most intriguing projects to come out of Batman & Robin’s failure

After the abysmal critical failure of Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. knew they had to go back to square one for Batman, hosting essentially a massive contest for Batman screenplays to find their footing with the character. Eventually, the winner of this effort would be Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy, which clearly paid off for DC and Warner Bros. However, one tantalizing option was overlooked that might’ve been just as amazing.

At one point, Warner Bros. was considering a live-action version of Batman Beyond, the beloved cartoon which saw the upstart punk Terry McGinnis take Bruce Wayne’s place as Batman in a futuristic version of Gotham City. Show creators Paul Dini and Alan Burnett were hired to write the screenplay, with none other than the Western icon Clint Eastwood eyed for the role of an older, retired Bruce Wayne. Unfortunately, the idea was canceled due to creative differences, with Warner Bros. imposing a PG-13 rating on the idea.

5 Tim Burton’s Superman

Might’ve done just as well as his version of Batman

After Tim Burton was able to catapult Batman further into pop culture reverence with his 1989 film Batman, it isn’t a shock to imagine that DC would be eager for him to repeat the trick with their other flagship character. Once upon a time, Burton was slated to work with Kevin Smith to produce a Superman film titled Superman Lives, produced by Jon Peters of Licorice Pizza fame. The concept is most famous for it’s casting of Nicolas Cage as Superman, with the screen testing of which eventually being made public.

Nicolas Cage eventually got his chance to wear the famous Superman badge, albeit briefly and digitally, in a cameo towards the end of the DCEU’s The Flash. A documentary called The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened? was also made that chronicled the film’s production woes. Sadly, the idea was eventually dissolved due to a host of creative differences and infighting within production. This is a shame considering that Tim Burton’s vision of characters like Lex Luthor and Doomsday very nearly made it to theaters.

4 Terry Gilliam’s Watchmen

Might’ve done Alan Moore’s famous book better than Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen currently holds a monopoly on film adaptations of Alan Moore’s critically-acclaimed comic book of the same name. However, as far back as the early 90s, concepts for a Watchmen movie were being floated past none other than Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. This version of the film would’ve been produced by Joel Silver, known for his work on The Matrix, and written for screen by Sam Hamm, who helped bring Batman to life in 1989.

The most interesting part of Terry Gilliam’s Watchmen would’ve been the planned cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger was positioned to dye his skin blue for the first time before Batman & Robin as Doctor Manhattan, and none other than the legendary David Bowie himself was to play Rorschach. In terms of changes to the source material, this film would’ve modified the ending of the story by having Schwarzenegger’s Manhattan use his powers to prevent his own creation, effectively killing himself.

3 Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One

One of the bleakest takes on a Batman story yet

Compared to other characters, Batman lends himself to very grounded superhero stories that seem like they could really take place in the real world. From Batman Begins to Joker to The Batman, filmmakers seem obsessed with grounding The Dark Knight and Gotham in reality as much as possible. The most extreme example would’ve been Darren Aronofsky’s vision for a Batman film, loosely based on the widely-beloved comic run Batman: Year One.

The Requiem for a Dream director had a very bleak vision for Batman, who, instead of being rich, would be a penniless street orphan in this incarnation. Alfred would’ve been a simple blue-collar mechanic, Catwoman would’ve been a prostitute, and the Batcave was reduced to a simple abandoned subway station. Interestingly enough, Joaquin Phoenix was favored to be cast as Aronofsky’s Batman years before his debut as Joker in 2019.

2 Green Arrow: Escape From Super Max

Oliver Queen’s only chance at a theatrical release

While the CW’s Arrow went on for 8 seasons and even inspired the creation of its own televised interconnected universe, Green Arrow has never been lucky enough to get his own movie. For whatever reason, producers have left out Oliver Queen as one of the few core Justice League members to not be worth his own theatrical release, or any film appearance for that matter. However, frequent DC filmmaker David S. Goyer almost directed his own take on a Green Arrow movie.

Called Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max, the film would’ve lived up to its name by being one elaborate prison break undertaken by the Emerald Archer. The plot would’ve seen Green Arrow framed for murder and confined to a maximum-security prison alongside some of DC’s most violent criminals, including Icicle, The Riddler, Lex Luthor, and the Joker. Though the film was never confirmed to be canceled by Warner Bros., no news of the project has been heard since 2008.

1 Justice League Dark

Might have been a superhero-horror masterpiece

The shadowy magical-focused counterpart to the Justice League, Justice League Dark is an affiliated team in the comics consisting of DC’s more demonic or arcane heroes. Once upon a time, a live-action film revolving around this team was in development. Fittingly enough, Guillermo del Toro was slated to direct, a great choice considering his experience with both horror and superhero genres.

Justice League Dark was planned to center on John Constatine, one of the most powerful magic-users in DC Comics. The plot would’ve centered on Constantine forming the titular team, gathering characters like Swamp Thing, Etrigan, Deadman, the Spectre, and Zatanna. Now that the film has seemingly fallen by the wayside, it remains to be seen if fans will ever be able to get a glimpse at DC’s more supernatural side in a comic book movie.