Warner Bros. Announces Their DC Comics Movie Plans

[Castiel]

Everyone knew that Warner Bros. was planning to release a fleet of superhero movies based on the DC Universe. And now studio head Kevin Tsujihara has revealed the titles of those superhero movies, announcing an ambitious slate of 10 films spread throughout interlocking franchises that will star beloved characters like Superman and Batman, plus lesser-known characters like Shazam and Cyborg. They’re also making a new Green Lantern movie, but not until 2020, by which time Ryan Reynolds’ child will be five years old and his parents will never talk about how they met, not ever.
The 10 announced films are:
—Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016.
—Suicide Squad, an adaptation of a comic book that focuses on a team of imprisoned supervillains running black ops missions for the government. It will be directed by David Ayer and will arrive in 2016, which means 2016 will have two supervillain-team movies (assuming The Sinister Six hits its release date).

—Wonder Woman will arrive in 2017, after Gal Gadot debuts the character in BvS: DoJ.

—Justice League Part One will also arrive in 2017 and will star everyone, presumably. (The press release specifically mentions that Amy Adams will be in the movie.)

—The Flash hits theaters in 2018 and will star Ezra Miller. The fact that Miller is already attached to a movie that won’t come out for four years means he’ll definitely appear in Justice League 1 and might even get a cameo in BvS: DoJ. A Flash movie would seem to prove beyond all shadow of a doubt that the DC Cinematic Universe will never intersect with the rapidly expanding DC TV Universe—unless Ezra Miller is playing Jay Garrick, and the DC Cinematic Universe is “Earth-One†to the DC TV Universe’s “Earth-Two.â€

—Aquaman starring Jason Momoa also arrives in 2018, and it will definitely be awesome. (Shut up you guys Aquaman is the best he controls THE OCEANS!!!)

—A Shazam movie hits theaters in 2019. As previously reported, the film will feature Dwayne Johnson as the villainous Black Adam. The film is currently set up at Warner Bros’ sibling studio New Line—check out what New Line president Toby Emmerich told EW about the Shazam movie, which will come out when your 12-year-old niece is applying to college.

—Justice League Part Two will arrive in 2019. Like the first Justice League, it will be directed by Zack Snyder. Feel free to speculate rampantly about the fact that the two Justice League movies are specifically called “Part One†and “Part Two.â€

—Cyborg starring Ray Fisher will arrive in 2020, in the midst of a presumably heated presidential election between two candidates who are barely even born yet.

—And a new Green Lantern movie will also arrive in 2020, nine years after the first Green Lantern movie made $220 million worldwide, slightly more than the opening weekend gross of Avengers.

In a fun twist, Warner Bros. also announced that it’s working on two more DC movies—another Superman solo film starring Henry Cavill, and a standalone Batman film starring Ben Affleck. (There’s also a LEGO Batman movie. Baker’s Dozen!) Left off the release calendar: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s The Sandman and Guillermo Del Toro’s Justice League Dark, two off-mainstream projects that have been in development for awhile.

Ezra Miller is a great actor but Flash? I don't know... though it's still a long ways off I just never would've pictured him as a superhero. I guess I'll just have to trust his acting talent. Fuck, why is it so hard to cast a perfect Flash? Jason Momoa sounds lame to me.

 

[Postman Dave]

Man I can't wait for all this to go spectacularly tits up.

 

[Citan]

My two cents (or three, or four...):

-I like Zack Snyder, but I'm sick of him directing everything. Even though I genuinely enjoyed the action scenes in Man of steel, as was as Henry Cavill as Superman, it was truly a by the numbers, unimpressive film. To be fair, MoS was yet another origin story. Which is why I believe Batman vs Superman will be a marked improvement over its predecessor, since it's a brand new story. But I don't want him directing any more DC films after that. Ben Affleck should have directed Justice League. Unless Warner /DC execs are really enjoying what is Snyder is doing with BvS, which would explain why they have complete and total faith in him to the point of giving him the reigns to direct Justice eague and its sequel. But right now, I'm not convinced.

-I really dig the casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman. I'm glad they have big plans for the character.

-I would have a Justice League Dark film instead of Green Lantern. But I can unerstand why they are saving the GL reboot last, so the character can be properly introduced in BvS and J1+2. That way people will have forgotten about the 2011 film. JLD will probably be coming out in 2022, along with Sandman.

-I can see The Batman in 2019, Man of Steel II in 2020. and Justice League 3 in 2021.

-Suicide Squad film is very interesting. Perpaps WB / DC Films were inspired by the recent success of the equally unkown property Guardians of the Galaxy?

-Wonder Woman having her own solo movie after BvsS but before JS is a good idea.

-I don't know about announcing The Flash movie right after its TV counterpart has debuted. Should the TV show prove to be well received, fans will only end up comparing both the series and the movie to death. And if Warner/DC want the film to be successful can only mean the show will be cancelled before the release of the film. The upcoming Batman solo film should have been the one to take its slot.

-I have a good feeling about these films in general. If WB want to be as successful as the MCU, the films will have to be really good. Sony had their own plans for a Spiderman cinematic universe, but ASM2 having mixed reviews and performing well below expecations have led to completely rewrite their plans if the latest reports are to be believed. Universal aslo had plans their own Monster Cinematic Universe, but the recently released Dracula Untold also underperformed (not to mention the addition of the the links to the greater plans were reportedly an afterthought), probably forcing them to either delay or change their current plans. I'm sure WB / DC studios are taking notes. The films (specifically) have to be really good in order for the DC Cinematic Universe to be a success.

 

[Sabretooth]

Now the problem with this is that if batman v superman fails, that will pretty much cancel all these plans and make a fool out of DC. they better be damn confident.

 

[Postman Dave]

Now the problem with this is that if batman v superman fails, that will pretty much cancel all these plans and make a fool out of DC. they better be damn confident.

Which is my fear, because despite being a box office smash, Man Of Steel wasn't exactly a grade A film.

 

[Sabretooth]

Which is my fear, because despite being a box office smash, Man Of Steel wasn't exactly a grade A film.

I wouldn't call it a box office smash. It made 668 million which isn't that good considering superman is one of the most popular superheroes if all time. iron man 3, captain America 2, and GOTG all made more money and they're sure as fuck not as famous as superman. GOTG are D-list heroes who made more money than an A-list superman.

And like you said it wasn't even that good.

 

[Postman Dave]

I wouldn't call it a box office smash. It made 668 million which isn't that good considering superman is one of the most popular superheroes if all time. iron man 3, captain America 2, and GOTG all made more money and they're sure as fuck not as famous as superman. GOTG are D-list heroes who made more money than an A-list superman.

And like you said it wasn't even that good.

TBF, 668 million is exactly pocket change :

Besides, despite all the marketing, Superman still had a lot of goodwill to repair following "Returns". There's a reason the marketing attempted to link it to the Dark Knight Trilogy as much as possible.

And those Marvel films all came off the back of Avengers, the most successful superhero movie of all time, and a consistent studio track record. That's the power of goodwill. Marvel could announce Howard The Duck 2 tomorrow and people would still go watch.

 

[Sabretooth]

TBF, 668 million is exactly pocket change :

Besides, despite all the marketing, Superman still had a lot of goodwill to repair following "Returns". There's a reason the marketing attempted to link it to the Dark Knight Trilogy as much as possible.

And those Marvel films all came off the back of Avengers, the most successful superhero movie of all time, and a consistent studio track record. That's the power of goodwill. Marvel could announce Howard The Duck 2 tomorrow and people would still go watch.

Yeah but when guardians of the galaxy beats superman thats a problem :

 

[Wang Chung]

Marvel could announce Howard The Duck 2 tomorrow and people would still go watch.

I would go watch Howard the Duck 2 without an announcement by Marvel as long as it flows with the first one I am down.