Kotaku reported that the decision to pull the plug on the project came after “a long period of turbulence” at the Warner Bros. studio, including the loss of both studio head Martin Carrier and executive producer Reid Schneider. The game was apparently — and logically — a co-op focused affair, but “failed to impress” Warner Bros. executives during the early stages of development.
The same report also stated that in the place of the Suicide Squad game will be a new Batman adaptation starring Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian. Due to the finality of the elder Wayne’s story in Batman: Arkham Knight, and WB Montreal’s previous work with the series, this game wouldn’t be particularly surprising.
There is another game rumored to be in development that is absent from the most recent report, however: a Superman adaptation. Supposed leaks came back in 2015, showing off concept art for Superman and Brainiac. A short time later, a GIF emerged of what appears to be a character selection screen or in-game dossier, with a “New 52”-skinned Superman moving next to a blurry section of text.
The quality of the character model, as well as the Xbox “X” button featured in the clip, both appear to fall in line with the Xbox 360 more than the Xbox One — it’s possible that the game was designed for last-gen systems and was canceled years ago, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that WB Montreal is working on Clark Kent’s return, and that a good Superman game will finally be released after years of dreadful adaptations.
Should the Superman game have been canceled, it wouldn’t be the first time Warner Bros. has done so. Following the disappointing performance of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns film, a planned open-world game was axed back in 2009.
