In the 1990s, Die Hard writer and action movie legend Steven E. de Souza wrote two drafts of a Flash Gordon script with Breck Eisner planning to direct, but it was never produced.
In March 2019, Borys Kit of the Hollywood Reporter tweeted that the status of this remake is unknown due to Disney purchasing Fox, who owned the rights to the property.
After the success of the Buck Rogers comic strip, King Features Syndicate approached Edgar Rice Burroughs on publishing a strip based on his character John Carter, but an agreement couldn't be made. King instead worked with Alex Raymond, one of their staff artists, to create Flash Gordon. The initial story of an athletic hero, his girlfriend, and a scientist traveling by rocket ship to an approaching threatening planet was inspired by Philip Wylie's novel When Worlds Collide.
In Oct. 2018 it was announced that Julius Avery, Director of the of the Nazis/zombies flick Overlord, was in line to write and direct this remake. Avery replaced Matthew Vaughn, who had been attached to it since 2015. Vaughn will now produce, alongside John Davis. Avery's script replaces one by Mark Protosevich, which in turn replaced one by JD Payne and Patrick McKay.