Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max would have been a precursor to Suicide Squad.
Green Arrow has become an A-tier superhero thanks to The CW’s Arrow. However, things weren’t always so peachy for the Emerald Archer.
Not long ago, the DC hero was little-known and underappreciated, and because of this, a proposed Green Arrow film has been indefinitely delayed by Warner Bros. since the late 2000’s.
But what would this film have been like?
According to David S Goyer, who was hired to write the film, it would have been titled Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max.
Escape from Super Max would see Green Arrow framed for a murder he didn’t commit, and then sent to a high security prison. From there, the film would focus on Oliver Queen’s escape plan…as well as him facing a variety of DC villains, like The Riddler, Lex Luthor, and even Joker. B.A.
Goyer, best known for writing The Dark Knight trilogy, recently sat down with Den of Geek and further explained what happened to his movie.
He began by comparing Escape from Super Max to the upcoming Suicide Squad, which will actually feature a variety of villains.
“It (Escape from Super Max) was completely ahead of its time. By the way, everything I see about Suicide Squad looks fantastic and it’s a different story. But it was absolutely ahead of its time. You know, Marvel was considering doing the Sinister Six and at the time, God, I think this was eight or nine years ago that we wrote a couple of drafts, but it certainly was like this oddball project at Warner Bros at the time, they were like – even though the script was good – ‘why would we make a movie about a bunch of villains? That makes no sense’.”
Goyer went on to explain that, at the time, the executives at Warner Bros. had no interest in bringing smaller, lesser known characters to the big screen; they were only interest in Superman and Batman. Due to this, Escape from Super Max faded away, and will likely never go into production.
While Green Arrow may not have been a big name a few years ago, he’s a big deal today.
Maybe The CW and Goyer can team up and adapt Escape from Super Max for Arrow, or even a film that will fit into the new DC cinematic universe?
Hopefully, one way or another, Goyer will be able to see his vision of a new Green Arrow project realized.
