13 Movies Already Cancelled In 2019 (And Why)

By Simon Gallagher / March 1, 2019

Though we're in the middle of a boom period for comic book movies, it's probably best to think of 2019 as the start of a new era for the genre (and let's be honest, that's what it is now). With the coming confirmation of Disney's acquisition of Fox's movie properties, we're going to see a whole new host of movies under the Marvel Studios banner, plus we have the post Avengers: Endgame shake-up to look forward to.

And in the wider blockbuster conversation, there are some unbelievable releases on their way and even more yet to be announced, no doubt. It's a good time for popcorn vendors as much as film fans and we could be in for quite a twelve months at the cinema and in news circles.

But it won't all be plain sailing. Last year saw the cancellation of some hotly anticipated movies - like the Mad Max sequel, Boba Fett and The Raid 3 - despite how much fans might have wanted to see them and chances are they won't be the last. Movies slip in and out of development hell and are cancelled all the time, after all, but even knowing that, the fact that 9 pretty major projects have already bit the dust this year is still somewhat shocking.

Let's hope it's not too much of a sign of things to come.

13. Joker & Harley

What We Knew

Despite Jared Leto's Joker going down like a lead balloon with his debut in Suicide Squad, Warner Bros were apparently still keen to use him in other properties. Knowing that they'd fudged the relationship between him and Margot Robbie's fan favourite Harley Quinn, one plan was to have a Mad Love style team-up movie focused solely on the pair.

Leto even expressed his enthusiasm for playing the character again, and presumably stocked up on dead animal parts and used condoms to send to the cast and crew or something.

The film was apparently to be written by Bad Santa scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, which suggests it might not have been all that subtle.

Why It Was Cancelled & The Future

There's no official word, but you'd have to speculate that it has something to do with the existence of Joaquin Phoenix's other Joker movie and the fact that pushing a Harley Quinn movie (Birds of Prey) that's consciously looking to make her more of a progressive character and also making one about her toxic relationship probably isn't the best look.

Will we still see more of Leto's Joker? He was announced as being in Gotham City Sirens and that project appears to still be happening for now, but time will tell.