Speaking about what attracted her to the project, Fennell says it was a chance to play outside her wheelhouse. “[The superhero genre] is not a genre I naturally gravitate towards,” she explained. “So I was like, I’d love to know how does one make a movie like that for people who don’t know so much and wouldn’t necessarily buy a ticket first time around?” That said, it sounds like Fennell did develop a fondness for her subject while writing: “Zatanna is just a really, really cool character.”
Zatanna is a stage magician, but one with the magic skills of any actual witch. Her usual costume is a classic magician’s look, with a top hat, wand, black tuxedo, and white shirt with a bowtie. She conjures spells by saying her desires backward. For instance, to pull a rabbit out of a hat, she’d declare, “Tah fo tuo tibbar!” She’s the daughter of Giovanni Zatara, a DC Comics character who debuted in 1938 (preceding even Superman), but she’s more famous than her old man at this point.
Part of that goes back to writer Paul Dini, who has a thing for Zatanna (there’s a reason he married a real-life magician). Dini wrote episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” and “Justice League Unlimited” guest-starring Zatanna. A younger version of Zatanna appears as a main character in “Young Justice.” In this iteration, she’s instead a contemporary of the teen heroes like Robin, while her dad is a member of the Justice League.
Gunn and Safran’s DC Universe has a Swamp Thing movie directed by James Mangold on the docket, so they’re not averse to the Justice League Dark. Perhaps one day Zatanna will get the big screen stardom she deserves.