New ‘Wonder Twins’ DC Movie Coming to HBO Max
Marvel may steal a lot of the press these days, but DC Comics is adding a comics-based voice to the entertainment industry apart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Following up on the surprising success of Peacemaker, creatives are working to figure out which DC Extended Universe characters are best suited for the next leap in cinematic history. It looks like there’s a plan. Wonder Twin power, activate!
‘The Wonder Twins’ are DC Comics’ alien siblings
As DC Fandom reports, the Wonder Twins are from the planet Exxor. Their names are Jayna and Zan, and they have ties to Superman. Although his reasoning remains unclear, Jayna and Zan’s father, a friend of Superman, sent the twins to live with the Justice League on Earth.
Both twins have shape-shifting abilities — Jayna can turn into any animal while Zan can turn into water — but they are only able to access these superpowers when they fist bump and say their famous catchphrase: “Wonder Twin powers, activate!”
The duo appeared in an issue of The Super Friends way back in 1977. But the most recent iteration of the extraterrestrial siblings occurred as part of the New 52 DC Universe in a 2019 comic book of their own.
HBO Max is taking a gamble on the Wonder Twins’ appeal
While the twins have a fairly long history in the DC universe, they often serve as the butt of jokes and memes. The Wonder twins’ catchphrase is a bit cheesy, and fans don’t take them very seriously despite their supernatural abilities.
In recent years, DC Comics has tried to give them a modern makeover. As The Hollywood Reporter explains, “DC has also attempted to update and scale up the characters, who have also appeared on episodes of Teen Titans Go!, Smallville, and The Flash.”
It’s likely this effort to modernize the characters will continue and expand with the upcoming HBO Max effort to give the twins their own movie. HBO Max has certainly tackled some gritty and hard-hitting series in recent years, so the sky is really the limit for what they might do with a live-action film based on the Wonder twins’ story.
‘Wonder Twins’ movie details are still under wraps
At this point, it’s hard to pin down just what is happening with the upcoming Wonder Twins film. We know Adam Sztykiel has been tapped to both write and direct the film — likely a nod to the positive buzz around Black Adam, which was also his work.
We know Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are slated to produce the project. Godfrey produced The Twilight Saga and The Maze Runner franchise. Bowen also worked on The Maze Runner as well as films like 2018’s First Man and 2021’s Fatherhood. While DC Comics is a far cry from teen rom coms and drama, the pair certainly has a wide range of experience under their belts.
As far as who might play the twins themselves, the casting information is either undecided or undisclosed. IMDb reports the entire project as “in development” with few details. While Zach Braff joked on Twitter that he would gladly play one or both twins, the coveted — or potentially humiliating — roles are a mystery at this point.
We can expect even more memes and jokes occurring as the Wonder Twins project gets further along. Still, there’s real potential for the movie to take a surprising turn. It helps that viewers seem to have fairly low expectations for just what can be done with the characters. This might play into the creators’ favor when it comes to wowing the audience.
