‘Naomi’: Ava DuVernay Teams With ‘Arrow’ Writer For DC Comics Drama Series At The CW

Remember when Marvel Studios was trying to get Ava DuVernay to direct Captain Marvel and Black Panther? Seems like a lifetime ago, and now she has become a major force over at DC. Not only is she helming a New Gods film, but a DMZ series for HBO Max, and now she’s headed to The CW with an adaptation of DC Comics series, Naomi.

Naomi is based on the 2019 DC Comic by writers Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker and superstar artist Jamal Campbell. It centers on a northwestern teen girl who discovers a multiverse of superheroes after a cataclysmic event shakes her town. Setting out to uncover the truth, Naomi learns something that changes everything she thought she knew about the world’s heroes.

The series will be developed, written, and exec-produced by DuVernay alongside Arrow writer/EP Jill Blankenship.

What’s unclear at this point is if Naomi will be part of Greg Berlanti’s vaunted Arrowverse of shows. This would be the first DC Comics drama on the network not to be produced by Berlanti. Other shows from Berlanti have been excluded from the Arrowverse, such as Black Lightning and Stargirl.

While I’m more interested in seeing what DuVernay does on the big screen, it’s tough to ignore that she’s telling stories that reflect unique takes on the black experience. Having more superhero projects featuring people of color is a good thing as it opens up whole new worlds of storytelling, as HBO’s Watchmen showed us.

 

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.