Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell to write DC’s Zatanna movie

Zatanna is officially hitting the big screen with Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell on board as its writer, according to Deadline. If you’ve been following the awards circuit at all this year, then you’ve heard of Fennell, who is getting a lot of buzz as the writer and director Promising Young Woman. She also starred in the most recent season of The Crown as Prince Charles’ forever love, Camilla Parker-Bowles. She’s a busy, busy lady, to say the least.

Currently, there’s no director or lead actress attached to the project. Still, it’s an exciting time for Fennell as she steps into the world of superheroes alongside Bad Robot and Warner Bros.

As for Zatanna, she made her debut in the November 1964 issue of Hawkman. Zatanna’s backstory is pretty awesome: she was a stage magician who at some point actually had magical powers and was a part of the Justice League. Her father, Zatara, taught Batman everything he knows about escaping from the clutches of villains.

So, basically, Zatanna and Batman have been BFFs for a long time, so maybe, just maybe, some version of Batman will pop up in the movie. Oh, and she also had a romantic relationship with John Constantine, so the list of potential cameos is endless.

Zatanna’s DC history

This won’t be the first time the character of Zatanna has appeared onscreen. She starred in the 50th episode of Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered on February 2, 1993, which made her the first superhero guest star of the DC Animated Universe, according to the DC Animated Universe Wiki. Her first live-action appearance was during Smallville’s eighth season, where she was played by Inhumans’ Serinda Swan.

DC fans are excited to see Zatanna up on the big screen, and they have even more reason to get psyched now that Fennell is attached to write (and maybe direct, fingers crossed). Promising Young Woman is nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Fennell also made Oscars history last week when she became the first female filmmaker to be nominated for the Best Director category for a feature directorial debut!

Rest assured, Zatanna is in safe hands with Fennell, and I certainly can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

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h/t AV Club