DC Studios Animation considered developing a movie based on Kingdom Come but ultimately abandoned the idea after James Gunn and Peter Safran took control of the franchise.
Speaking to Screen Rant at San Diego Comic-Con 2023, producer Butch Lekic confirmed that before the creative team set to work on Justice League: Warworld, Mark Waid and Alex Ross‘ story of aging superheroes was their goal. “We originally talked about Kingdom Come after this, but changing regimes, we couldn’t go forward with anything like that,” Lekic said. It’s worth noting that the producer doesn’t explicitly state that Gunn and Safran shot down the idea and that the project may have been dropped due to a myriad reasons.
Lekic went on to explain that while Kingdom Come is revered amongst comic book fans, he’s more drawn to adapting shorter stories rather than bigger graphic novels. “Again, it’s personal and individual stuff that I would like to do, and I like the one comic book or two comic book issue stories,” he explained. “I think adapting graphic novels, there’s too much in there. Whereas if you just take two of the miniseries stuff, you can make a better story.”
Kingdom Come Sets a Standard
Written by Waid with Ross on art, Kingdom Come is set in a future where many of DC’s classic characters, such as Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, have handed the reigns of superherodom over to a younger generation. The older members of the Justice League are eventually brought out of retirement when the sea of new heroes lose their moral compass and start resorting to increasingly more brutal methods to bring down their villains.
All four issues of Kingdom Come are now available from DC Comics in a variety of editions, including the Absolute Kingdom Come which features an all-new illustration by Ross, annotations of the whole story, and several more extras.
