Canceled DC Superhero Games

Summary

• DC Comics has had many canceled games, like Wonder Woman by Monolith Productions, which would have implemented the Nemesis System.
• The Flash had two scrapped games: one by Warner Bros Montreal and another by Bottlerocket Entertainment.
• Superman: Blue Steel by Factor 5 and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight by Day 1 Studios were also abruptly canceled.

As the publisher behind cultural juggernauts like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and many more, there’s no denying that DC Comics is one of the biggest comic book companies in the entire world. However, Batman is arguably the only DC character that has had a solid representation in the world of gaming, with most of its other iconic superheroes and supervillains still lacking a proper video game of their own.

Curiously enough, there have been many instances in which classic characters (like Flash, Wonder Woman, or even Superman himself) almost got to star in an ambitious AAA video game, until they were ultimately canceled for one reason or another. Needless to say, there’s a lot of information about promising DC Comics games that were canceled or scrapped, and the following are the most fascinating ones in the company’s history so far.

1

Wonder Woman

By Monolith Productions

Wonder Woman is one of those famous comic book characters that should star in her own single-player video game, since she’s a powerful warrior with a vast arsenal of powers, weapons, and enemies. Fortunately for her fans, Monolith Productions and Warner Bros. Games were working on exactly that, since in 2021 they announced an open-world action-adventure game starring the most famous heroine in the comic book industry, and it was simply titled Wonder Woman.

The most interesting part of this announcement was the fact that this game was going to implement the famous Nemesis System that Monolith had created for their previous two games, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, so fans were naturally expecting Wonder Woman to be an action-packed single-player adventure of similar quality, but with Diana Prince as the main playable character instead. Unfortunately, in February 2025 (after three years of complete silence), Warner Bros. Games announced that not only was Wonder Woman being canceled, but that Monolith Productions was being shut down as well. There were rumors that this game was going to feature live-service elements, so the critical and commercial failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League may have discouraged Warner Bros. Games from continuing the development of Wonder Woman’s very first video game adventure.

2

The Flash

By Warner Bros Montreal

In a similar vein to Wonder Woman, the Flash is yet another iconic DC superhero that still hasn’t had the chance to star in a video game of his own, but he has been very close to getting one on many occasions. Back in February 2025, it was discovered that Warner Bros. Games had canceled the production of a brand-new The Flash video game by Gotham Knights developer Warner Bros Montreal, due to the lackluster performance of the 2023 DCEU movie of the same name.

Not much is known about this scrapped project, but the idea of a modern AAA single-player adventure starring any version of the Flash sounded fun and interesting, as it would have most likely featured fast-paced gameplay similar to one of the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games. Reports at the time said that Warner Bros Montreal went on to assist Monolith Productions with the development of Wonder Woman, which was abruptly canceled just a few weeks after this information was unveiled to the public.

3

Justice League: Mortal

By Double Helix Games

Even DC’s cinematic output has had its fair share of bumps in the road, with many promising films being canceled throughout the company’s history. One of the most infamous ones is Justice League: Mortal, a live-action Justice League movie directed by George Miller that was in production during the late 2000s and was later scrapped when a slew of production issues caused Miller to step down from the project.

Curiously enough, DC had already greenlit a tie-in Justice League: Mortal video game with the same title before the movie was even completed, and it was being developed by Double Helix Games, the studio that would later make Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters in 2011. Justice League: Mortal was going to be a third-person beat ’em up with heroes like Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman as playable characters, and it would have even featured boss fights against classic villains like Reverse Flash or Sinestro. There are even reports that development on this project continued after the cancellation of the movie it was based on, but it was ultimately scrapped as well.

4

The Flash

By Bottlerocket Entertainment

The Flash hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to video game releases, because Warner Bros Montreal’s mid-2020s project was not the only digital adventure starring the famous red speedster that was canceled. Back in 2008, Bottlerocket Entertainment was working on a brand-new The Flash game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which was going to be published by Brash Entertainment.

Images and videos of this scrapped project were uploaded to the internet in 2009, and it looked quite good and promising, as Flash’s extreme speed would have allowed players to quickly explore a vast open-world map and fight hordes of enemies with a very dynamic combat system. This project was sadly canceled when Brash Entertainment went out of business in November 2008, and the remaining images have inspired fans to keep asking DC for a new The Flash video game ever since.

5

Superman: Blue Steel

By Factor 5

Superman needs his own high-quality AAA video game, more than any other superhero in the comic book industry, and the fact that he still hasn’t had a good one has frustrated DC fans for decades. But this has almost happened on more than one occasion, with the most noteworthy one being Factor 5’s canceled project, Superman: Blue Steel.

While reports about this game have existed for years, a former Factor 5 developer did a deep dive about it on her personal Twitter/X page in 2021: it would have been a third-person action game with a big focus on aerial combat, big and impactful attacks and destructible environments, which made a lot of sense, considering that this was the studio behind the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series. Superman: Blue Steel looked like a fascinating video game, like nothing else in the industry at the time, and the developers were apparently quite passionate about it (they even had plans to include powerful DC villains like General Zod, Darkseid, or Livewire). Sadly, this game was also canceled when Brash Entertainment went out of business, and it was followed by Factor 5’s closure in May 2009.

6

Batman: Gotham By Gaslight

By Day 1 Studios

Even the Caped Crusader has his fair share of canceled video games, with one of the most interesting ones being Batman: Gotham By Gaslight, Day 1 Studios’ adaptation of DC’s very first Elseworlds story. Like the one-shot comic book it was based on, this was going to be a dark adventure through Victorian England, with a mysterious atmosphere and an incredibly detailed 3D model of Batman.

On top of that, Batman: Gotham By Gaslight would have also featured a dedicated slow-motion button and different Victorian-themed gadgets for the titular hero. Unfortunately, as distinct and promising as this game looked, it had to be scrapped when THQ couldn’t secure the Batman license from Warner Bros. While it was never confirmed why the company failed to do so, Batman: Arkham Asylum was in production around the same time, so it’s most likely that DC and Warner Bros didn’t want to spend resources on two similar single-player Batman video games.

7

Batman: The Dark Knight

By Pandemic Studios

The concept of movie-licensed video games began dying around the late 2000s, which explains why Batman Begins was the only movie in Christopher Nolan’s beloved Dark Knight Trilogy to receive a video game adaptation. However, a game based on its excellent sequel, 2008’s The Dark Knight, was in development at Pandemic Studios (developer of games like Star Wars: Battlefront and Destroy All Humans!) in 2007.

Pandemic was working on a standalone Batman game until Electronic Arts ordered the studio to turn it into an adaptation of The Dark Knight, and it was forced to rush its development, so it was done before EA lost the Batman rights in December 2008. By implementing the same engine that Pandemic was using for its World War 2 game, The Saboteur, the studio managed to build a solid-looking stealth/action title that was sadly canceled due to a long string of unfortunate technical issues and questionable management decisions. As a result, The Dark Knight was the very first Batman film to not receive a tie-in video game (which supposedly made Warner Bros and DC lose a lot of money), and EA closed down Pandemic Studios in November 2009.

8

Lobo

By Ocean Of America

Lobo, the infamous gruff and violent alien anti-hero, is the last DC Comics character one would expect to receive a video game of his own, especially during the 90s, when most of the company’s gaming endeavors were adaptations of family-friendly live-action films and animated TV shows. However, this is exactly what almost happened in 1996, because Ocean of America was working on a Lobo fighting game for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.

This 2D fighter would have used digitized sprites of 3D models (similarly to the ones in games like Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct) for its playable characters, which admittedly looked quite advanced for its time. It was never confirmed why Lobo was canceled, but it can be assumed that it was either due to the game’s poor quality – with even some gaming publications at the time claiming that it looked terrible, and it played badly – or because it was being developed as a 2D fourth-generation console game way too late into those systems’ respective lifespans. Although there are also reports that at one point Ocean tried to transfer its development to Nintendo’s then-upcoming Ultra 64 console (which would later go on to be named Nintendo 64), this never ended up materializing as well.