Stephen Spielberg has been announced as the director of a Blackhawk film, possibly for the DC Extended Universe. If this was not interesting enough, some speculate that it may be a spin-off from the franchise’s Wonder Woman movie.
David Koepp is reportedly going to work on the script. The project is not likely to go forward for a while, however, as Spielberg has preexisting plans to make Indiana Jones 5 and West Side Story before getting around to this.
Originally created by the now-defunct Quality Comics and later purchased by DC Comics, Blackhawk focuses on a Polish ace pilot named Janos Prohaska/Blackhawk, who led the international Blackhawk Squadron against the Nazis during World War II.
They were popular during the 1940-1960s period where war comics were in and superheroes were less common. This makes it an unusual property for Warner Bros. to want to adapt: will this be a straight-up normal war film, or will this team somehow be integrated into the DCEU’s more supernatural shenanigans, as often occurs in their modern comic book appearances.
Even in the latter case, connecting them to Wonder Woman is speculative; indeed, we do not even know if Blackhawk will be in the DCEU. Warner Bros. has also announced a Joker origin movie unconnected to that franchise, and given the nature of this property it may well be meant to stand on its own.
That said, Warner Bros. decided to change her origin story to take place in World War I instead of World War II, so they could theoretically do the same thing again. This is especially true because she was joined by a ragtag group of international helpers; furthermore, one of them, Sameer, is a member of the Blackhawks, according to his actor, Saïd Taghmaoui.
With Wonder Woman as the DCEU’s only real unqualified success, making a spin-off from it would make sense. If nothing else, the studio may have determined that similar projects could have potential for more success (note the number of female-led projects reportedly being fast-tracked for the DCEU, for example).
With the DCEU’s roster changing all the time, it is unclear when or if this project will move forward. So until we learn more, all we can do is speculate about this rather unusual choice for a comic adaptation.
