Emerald Fennell, known for her bold creative choices in films such as Saltburn, has opened up about the turbulent mental state that influenced her work on the unproduced Emerald Fennell Zatanna Movie. Once attached to a film adaptation of the Mistress of Magic, produced by JJ Abrams, Fennell described her screenplay for the project as “demented,” tying its tone closely to her personal struggles at the time.
She revealed in an interview with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused that her emotional state played a critical role in shaping the project.
“I think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time,”
Fennell said.
“I just finished Promising Young Woman, and there was this huge thing in this world that I’d never operated in.”
Fennell explained how her experience influenced the tone and direction of the film’s script.
“I was like, ‘Okay, how do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?’ [I was a] woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown. So it’s a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, I would say,”
she added.
“I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre. It was really dark. I haven’t read it for a really long time because I found it really difficult.”
The Impact of Fennell’s Vision and the Role of JJ Abrams
While Emerald Fennell struggled with the dark themes embedded in her script, she expressed gratitude toward JJ Abrams for trusting her with the project. Abrams, who had signed a significant first-look deal with Warner Bros. prior to Discovery’s leadership change under David Zaslav, had acquired several Justice League Dark properties, including Zatanna.
Fennell reflected on the opportunity and her feelings about the outcome:
“I love JJ so much, and he took a chance on offering me to do it, and I really wanted to deliver something amazing for them, and I always felt like I hadn’t quite delivered the thing that they wanted,”
she shared. Despite Abrams’ enthusiasm for characters like Swamp Thing, Madame Xanadu, and Deadman, years went by without any progress on these projects under his watch.
Justice League Dark Projects Face Continued Obstacles Amid Studio Changes
Since then, DC Studios, led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, may have considered a Zatanna film internally, but there has been no public sign of movement or contact with Emerald Fennell. Other projects tied to Justice League Dark, such as James Mangold’s Swamp Thing, appear stalled as Mangold recently signed a new deal with Paramount, casting doubt on the film’s future.
Warner Bros. has found the Justice League Dark universe difficult to bring to the screen. Guillermo Del Toro, who was developing a film that involved Swamp Thing and Deadman, recently closed the door on his project, highlighting the ongoing challenges faced by these supernatural characters in finding a cinematic home.
Emerald Fennell’s Current Focus and What Lies Ahead
While the fate of the ‘Zatanna’ movie remains uncertain, Emerald Fennell has shifted her attention to other artistic endeavors, such as her recent reinterpretation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, which is currently in theaters. Her candid reflections on the emotional toll of her aborted superhero project underline the complexities artists face when merging personal experience with genre expectations.
The difficulties surrounding Justice League Dark films continue to underscore the challenges within studio systems when it comes to balancing creative vision and commercial demands. Whether the ‘Zatanna’ character will find her moment in DC’s evolving cinematic plans remains to be seen, but Fennell’s story illustrates the tension between artistic ambition and industry realities.
