As we noted yesterday, in addition to moving Batman V. Superman to March 25th, 2016, DC rolled out a biiiiiig stack of release dates. Between 2016 and 2020, there are going to be ten DC movies. But which ones are on the way?
First of all, for reference, here are the dates:
Superman V. Batman – March 25, 2016
Untitled DC Film — August 5, 2016
Untitled DC Film – June 23, 2017
Untitled DC Film – November 17, 2017
Untitled DC Film – March 23, 2018
Untitled DC Film – July 27, 2018
Untitled DC Film – April 5, 2019
Untitled DC Film – June 14, 2019
Untitled DC Film – April 3, 2020
Untitled DC Film – June 19, 2020
What We Know
There are a few movies we know are coming: Justice League, Man of Steel 2, and Wonder Woman. We can throw Shazam! onto that pile as well, since the Rock basically confirmed it. So, with Batman V. Superman, that’s five. Let’s assume that DC is already planning Justice League 2, because of course they are.
Just for giggles, let’s fill those out into likely candidates. Going by announcements and production schedules (don’t forget that Justice League is being filmed back-to-back with Batman V. Superman), and giving Hollywood about two years between each franchise entry, you get…
Superman V. Batman – March 25, 2016
Shazam! — August 5, 2016
Justice League – June 23, 2017
Wonder Woman – November 17, 2017
Man Of Steel 2 – March 23, 2018
Justice League 2 – July 27, 2018
Untitled DC Film – April 5, 2019
Untitled DC Film – June 14, 2019
Untitled DC Film – April 3, 2020
Untitled DC Film – June 19, 2020
So what are the other four?
Sequels?
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that DC just plans to build off its big three and include the smaller heroes as accents. That would also be the safe way to play it, and it’d fill out the schedule pretty quickly. It’s mostly a question of whether they want to try and build a broader “cinematic universe” or keep it tightly focused on a handful of characters. Honestly, of all the moves, this actually seems the most likely. But it isn’t the only option.
Braver And Bolder?
Here’s the thing: As much as DC might want to, say, make Aquaman happen, and they are trying very hard to make Aquaman happen, he’s not going to happen. And on some level, they have to be aware of this. When Nikki Finke laid out a bunch of DC spoilers, or at least claimed to, probably the oddest news was that a Flash/Green Lantern teamup was in the works.
Considering that the second movie in this series is essentially World’s Finest, we can’t help but wonder if DC’s plan is to bring The Brave and The Bold to movie screens. Instead of having Aquaman try and carry his own movie, and the flood of bad Entourage jokes that would follow, you team him up with Cyborg for some reason. It would be a good way to introduce new characters as well, and possibly spin off solo movies.
Smaller And More Experimental?
The other way they can go is with smaller movies based off more obscure properties, which was the plan a while back. And DC has a pretty deep bench of heroes and villians to play with; they could do anything from a Golden Age Sandman movie to a Suicide Squad movie on the relative cheap.
The question, of course, is how much Warner wants to invest. It’s a question we’re going to have the answer to very, very, soon; if that movie’s coming August 5th, 2016, Warner Bros. is going to announce it quickly.