Movie studios like to get ahead of themselves when it comes to the Tentpole Franchise Game (coming to you next Christmas from Parker Brothers), because crafting a cinematic universe means looking to the future, and while the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has had a few hiccups prior to Wonder Woman, it doesn’t mean DC and Warner Bros. are pumping the brakes. Far from it, actually; at current count, 18 movies are somewhere between “in development” and “post-production.” It’s the fluidity that’s really interesting, I think.
So let’s run down each of them, what we know, what we don’t, and what we think will ultimately happen with it.
DCEU Movies with Release Dates
Currently there are five such films on the docket.
Aquaman – December 21, 2018
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
Comic-Con was DC’s to lose, and largely they won. They showed the newest trailer which went online, plus some other footage that didn’t, which showed Arthur Curry in his comic book iconic yellow and green costume/armor. It all looks pretty awesome.
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UPDATED: 12/07/2017
This image of Jason Momoa looking jacked has been released by Entertainment Weekly along with a quote from the actor saying the following:
“Justice League was only a weekend in Arthur Curry’s life,†Momoa says. “This is a totally different beast. In Aquaman, you see when his parents met and what happened to hem. Then the little boy being raised and finding his powers and going through that and never being accepted on either side. And then becoming this man who puts up all these walls. You just slowly see this man harden up and be completely reluctant wanting to be king and not knowing what to do with these powers he has. I think James Wan just killed it.â€
James Wan reportedly was given his pick of DC movies following the success of his Conjuring series at WB, and he actively chose Aquaman. This is really the movie that will show us whether or not the DCEU has changed for the better, because it’s still in production and went into shooting long after the initial hubbub. If you’d have told me even three years ago I’d be incredibly excited for an Aquaman movie, I’d have laughed in your face. But here we are.
Shazam! – April 5, 2019
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
I was certainly dubious about the director of Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation taking a stab at the light and upbeat Billy Batson, but the trailer that premiered at SDCC for Shazam! gave me a lot of hope. It’s been described as Big but for a superhero, and I can dig it. It can take the mick out of DC’s super-serious public image while being a way less raunchy Deadpool.
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This movie seems an even weirder choice than Aquaman, and its director–Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation helmer David F. Sandberg–seems yet weirder. It was at one time reported that Dwayne Johnson would appear in the movie as Black Adam, DC Comics’ Captain Marvel’s arch enemy, but now it’s been split into two parts, with a Black Adam solo movie happening later on. Sandberg joined the project in July 2017, and the movie will go into production in early 2018.
The fact that both Marvel’s Captain Marvel and DC’s movie featuring their own Captain Marvel will hit theaters the same year might speak to the urgency with which Shazam! has been shifted up the slate.
Wonder Woman 1984 – November 1, 2019
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
While the Warner Bros. panel at SDCC didn’t give us any on-the-internet footage or trailer, we have seen several images of Kristen Wiig’s main villain Cheetah (prior to her Cheetah-ing), Diana (Gal Gadot) and *GASP* Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) in the ’80s, and more. Patty Jenkins’ follow-up to 2017’s massive hit is off to a really nice start. Only a year and three months away.
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The success of Wonder Woman this year cannot be overstated. It’s the movie that WB was the most worried about, in terms of people not seeing it (because “women in action movies” BS), but it’s the movie that has totally shifted the focus of the entire DCEU. Evidently, Diana will be a much more central part of Justice League even than she was before, and they’d be fools not to capitalize on her success with a sequel.
As of this writing, director Patty Jenkins is in final negotiations to return for the sequel, and the script is being written by DC’s Creative Chief, Geoff Johns. We’re psyched for this one.
Cyborg – April 3, 2020
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
Not a ton of new information here; still no writers or director attached, but we do have a firm release date of April 3, 2020.
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One of the earlier post-BVS film announcements, Cyborg will star Ray Fisher as Victor Stone and Joe Morton as his father/creator Dr. Silas Stone, both set to make their proper debut in this winter’s Justice League. As of San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2017, Cyborg is still on the docket for 2020.
Green Lantern Corps – July 24, 2020
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
Other than a release date (July 24, 2020) and the knowledge that the script will be written by Geoff Johns, David S. Goyer, and Justin Rhodes, from a story by Johns and Goyer, there’s nothing we know yet. In Brightest Day, and all that.
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I’m a fan of the Green Lantern comic books from way back, and I’m hoping by 2020 (and presumably some appearances in other movies leading in), Geoff Johns–who redefined that book when he took over writing in 2005–will be able to make the Corps something worth watching. Johns wrote the story with David S. Goyer, and Goyer will write the screenplay with Justin Rhodes.
DCEU Movies with No Release Date
UPDATED: 08/01/2018
Several of these movies have been announced in recent months and they’re all very intriguing on some level or another.
Justice League Dark
I can’t overstate how stoked I am to see how this one turns out. As early as 2013, Guillermo del Toro said he was working on a treatment to bring the occult and supernatural heroes of DC Comics to the screen. He said his version would include Swamp Thing, John Constantine, Zatanna, Etrigan the Demon, the Spectre, Deadman, and Madame Xanadu. As with so many beautiful things del Toro has been involved in, it didn’t end up happening and the filmmaker backed out. Then Doug Liman was attached to direct, but he pulled out in May 2017. As of SDCC, the movie is still on the docket and in August it was disclosed Jon Spaihts had been brought in to rewrite the script following an underwhelming presentation based on Michael Gilio’s Liman-era draft.
Flashpoint
The poor Ezra Miller Flash has had a hell of a time trying to get his solo movie off the ground. Many, many people have been attached to direct at one point or another, including but not limited to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Seth Grahame-Smith, Rick Famuyiwa, Robert Zemeckis, Matthew Vaughn, Sam Raimi, and Marc Webb. Several different drafts and page-one rewrites had been done, and it was confirmed at SDCC 2017 that the movie would in fact be an adaptation of Geoff Johns’ continuity-shifting event Flashpoint from 2011. Seems weird for them to do such a huge reboot story so early in the DCEU, but they’re trying all sorts of things at this point.
Justice League 2
At one point on the docket for 2019, the “Well, obviously” sequel to the big DCEU team-up movie was pushed back to make room for…
The Batman
One of the few bright spots of Batman v Superman was Ben Affleck‘s take on the Dark Knight; it was inevitable the film would jump up the timeline. Affleck was at one point signed up to write, direct, and star in the movie, then it scaled back to just writing and starring, and now it’s just starring, and he even had to make it very public that he even still wanted to play Batman in it.
Fresh off of his amazing pair of Planet of the Apes movies, director Matt Reeves has been brought on to The Batman and is evidently re-writing the script to make it focus on the detective side of the character, with a Hitchcock-influenced noir style that emphasizes seeing into Batman’s mind and heart in the storytelling techniques. Reeves also caused a stir in August 2017 by saying his film won’t be connected to any other DCEU film. People took this to mean it wouldn’t be in-universe, but the director quickly responded saying it would be in the same universe, but wouldn’t set up or be overly affected by any of the other DCEU movies. You know, like it used to be. This one seems pretty poised to get a sweet release date once a script is ready to go.
Man of Steel Sequel
Because at least ONE movie in the DCEU should get Superman right. This one wasn’t on the Wall-O-Titles at SDCC, but Amy Adams said in late 2016 that a script was being written.
Lobo
There’s not a ton of info on this one, Jason Fuchs was hired to write a screenplay in 2016. By February 2018, Fuchs was rewriting, with the studio eyeing Michael Bay to direct. Why? I kind of feel like no one else in the world could direct that movie, given how outdated and misogynistic the character of Lobo is. Anyway, Warner is hoping for a budget of under $200 million.
Gotham City Sirens
Margot Robbie is going to return as her Suicide Squad standout Harley Quinn, and would be joined by other famous Batman lady villains, Poison Ivy being almost a given. In December 2016, news that Squad director David Ayer would direct and produce and Geneva Robertson-Dworet would write the screenplay was dropped. It was rumored this movie is being shelved in favor of an untitled Joker and Harley Quinn movie, but they’re actually both in the cards.
Suicide Squad 2
On September 6, it was announced that The Accountant director Gavin O’Connor had been hired to direct the sequel. Even though Suicide Squad had many detractors, it made a lot of money, so of course a sequel is being made. And it still has quite a lot of potential–a team full of supervillains–so it could right itself.
Black Adam
Because if you can get Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson into your franchise, it can only make things better. Shifting to an anti-hero more than a straight villain, Johnson will play Black Adam and has teased that the character might make an appearance sooner than expected.
Nightwing
One of the many films discussed early in 2017 was a movie based on the grown-up sidekick of Batman with Chris McKay and Bill Dubuque signed on as director and screenwriter respectively. There’s a lot of love for Nightwing in the DC Comics fan community, and anything having to do with Batman would be a smart choice.
Batgirl
In March 2017, news broke that Joss Whedon would write and direct the film, drawing inspiration from Gail Simone’s arc in The New 52. This was one of the movies appearing on the aforementioned SDCC Wall-O-Titles and seeing as Whedon is shepherding Justice League, this one’s gonna happen sooner rather than later, we’d bet.
Untitled Harley Quinn and Joker movie
In late August 2017, it was revealed that a “criminal love story” starring Jared Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is in development, with Crazy Stupid Love‘s Glenn Ficarra and John Requa in final negotiations to co-write and co-direct the film. This is not taking the place of the Gotham City Sirens film, but will be in addition.
Non DCEU Movies
There are now two movies on the horizon that will have no connection to the DCEU from an in-continuity perspective.
Untitled Joker Origin Movie
The one that got everybody talking in August 2017 was a standalone, one-shot movie focusing on a possible origin for the Joker, set in the early ’80s. It will be produced by Martin Scorsese, directed by Todd Phillips, and written by Scott Silver. This is said to be the first movie under a different, Elseworlds-like banner of unconnected DC movies.
Untitled Booster Gold movie
As far as we know, the Greg Berlanti-produced Booster Gold live action movie is still in the works, and could possibly be another of these disconnected, one-off movies, since the project was initially touted as being outside the DCEU anyway.
And that is–WE THINK–it for now, but dang man, that’s a lot of movies.
Images: DC/Warner Bros, Entertainment Weekly
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and an avowed DC Comics fanboy. Follow him on Twitter!
