A complete guide to upcoming DC superhero movie release dates, from Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad to Justice League and beyond.
Now updated with information on the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold movie!Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Suicide Squad movie will kick off a golden age of DC superhero movies. The Wonder Woman movie will follow soon after, and it's all leading up to the Justice League movie. Two of them, in fact. So, it's time to take a look at all of the DC superhero movies that will be released over the next few years. And trust us, there are a ton of them on the way, and we expect more details will be announced as we go forward.
We have all the release dates for every one of 'em right here, as well as details on each one, and suggestions for further reading.
Here we go...
March 25th, 2016 - Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
What else do we have to say about this one? Well, not only is it the key to the newly minted DC Cinematic Universe, and the gateway to the Justice League movie, it's quite possible that the multi-hero approach of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will ultimately point the way towards how Warner Bros. will approach most of these future movies. As we'll see, there are definitely solo movies on the horizon, but things probably aren't going to follow the Marvel model.Even though Warner Bros. is now adopting a multi-film "shared universe" approach that appears similar to what Marvel Studios has built so successfully over the last six years, they likely aren't looking to duplicate that model. Unlike Marvel, where every film (not to mention TV show) aggressively teases and/or sets up potential plot elements and introduces characters for future films, it's fairly likely that at least a few of the DC Universe movies will remain somewhat independent of one another.
This is a safe assumption because we already know that two of the films definitely on that schedule, Shazam and Sandman, aren't particularly Justice League-centric films, and will likely spend considerable time building their own universes. While we have a pretty good idea of what the Justice League movie line-up will be (see the image we've chosen for that one down below), it's likely that not everyone is going to get their own movie...and that might be a good thing.
August 5th, 2016 - Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad movie boasts an impressive all-star cast. Jared Leto is playing the Joker (a difficult role to step into in the wake of Heath Ledger's incredible performance in The Dark Knight). Then we have Adam Beach as Slipknot, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Karen Fukuhara as Katana, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, and Jay Hernandez as El Diablo. There are loads of other supervillains making their way into this one, too. It's a little crazy.Dan Lin and Stephen Gilchrist as producers and with a script by Justin Marks (he of Top Gun 2 and the live-action Jungle Book, but who also wrote the excellent, unproduced Green Arrow: Escape From Supermax). David Ayer is directing.
Warner Bros. and DC Comics have been doing everything in their power to up the Suicide Squad's profile in recent years. With recent live-action appearances on Arrow, an animated film pairing them with Batman, and a high-profile comic book relaunch, it's easy to see how characters like Deadshot and Harley Quinn could anchor a Suicide Squad movie. DC Entertainment loves synergy.
You can expect lots more DC supervillains to make appearances in this one, too.
June 23rd, 2017 - Wonder Woman
The fact that we have yet to see a Wonder Woman solo movie is almost beyond belief. We don't have time to get into the rampant short-sightedness that is keeping women from taking marquee roles in superhero movies at the moment (and that's bound to change one of these days), but now that Gal Gadot is going to do some Amazonian ass-kicking in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, her emergence as a headliner is inevitable.Warner Bros. were clearly impressed with Ms. Gadot, as she'll be doing Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Wonder Woman solo movie, Justice League, and Justice League 2 in a fairly short amount of time. We'll know more about her soon enough! After a little bit of a shake-up, Patty Jenkins (Monster) is directing, from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs. Chris Pine will appear as Wonder Woman's love interest, Steve Trevor.
November 17th, 2017 - Justice League Part One
Zack Snyder will direct Justice League, and signs point to BvS co-writer Chris Terrio sticking around to work on the script, not to mention the fact that at least five members of the team (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman) will appear in Dawn of Justice, it should be relatively easy for the filmmakers to pull double duty and a remarkably short turnaround.The image above represents what is all but certain to be the Justice League line-up for the movie, possibly without Green Lantern, who they may hold back for introduction in the second installment. Yes, they also confirmed a sequel. We'll get to that shortly.
March 23rd, 2018 - The Flash
Debuting to some more than respectable numbers, The Flash TV series is a definite fan-favorite. In the past, Warner Bros has been shy about pushing multiple live-action interpretations of their characters at the same time (the success of Smallville helped hold up new Superman films for some time, while plans to introduce Bruce Wayne on that show were scuttled as Batman Begins became a reality). Clearly, that is no longer the case.Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Madame Bovary) has been announced as the lead for a Flash solo movie. We do know that this will be a movie about Barry Allen, but probably a very different Barry Allen than the one we currently love on TV. It's a little unclear at the moment if Flash will make his first appearance in Justice League Part One or Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, or if this film will serve as an origin story and introduction. This should become clear in coming days.
The most recent Flash screenplay that we're aware of was by Greg Berlanti (executive producer of Arrow and The Flash) and Michael Green. It's a good read, and better than a number of previous attempts (including one by Batman Begins and Man of Steel writer David Goyer), but elements of that have made their way into The Flash TV seres, and presumably beyond.
Now it appears that Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie) have been brought on board to write a treatment for The Flash movie.
July 27th, 2018 - Aquaman
Finally, Warner Bros. confirmed what everyone on the planet already knew: Jason Momoa is Aquaman. There's no doubt that they've been taking Aquaman very seriously. James Wan (Furious 7) will direct from a script by Kurt Johnstad (300: Rise of an Empire).
Unspecified Date in 2018- The Batman
Warner Bros. promised that their superhero schedule didn't include Batman or Superman solo films, but it didn't rule out the possibility of them down the line. Well, it looks like "down the line" might mean 2018. Ben Affleck will direct and star in a solo Batman movie. He will also co-write the screenplay with comics scribe Geoff Johns.We hear this will kick off a new trilogy of Batman movies. More details on that here.
There's also the chance that this could swap places on the calendar with the first installment of Justice League, although it all seems rather early to speculate on that.
We're not sure if this title is the real deal or not, but it makes some sense, and it comes to us via Latino Review, who were the first to report on the possibility of a new Batman solo movie starring Ben Affleck.
April 5th, 2019 - Shazam
Shazam has both a writer (Darren Lemke, of Turbo fame) and a star (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the villainous Black Adam) announced. If we end up getting to see Henry Cavill's Superman fight Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, it's tough to imagine anyone would complain.I've heard that this one could land well in advance of the announced 2019 release date, but I'm still looking into that.
June 14th, 2019 - Justice League Part Two
Justice League prologue Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice hasn't counted a single dollar of ticket sales yet, and here we are, staring at a release date for Justice League 2. All we know at the moment is that Zack Snyder will be back as director on this one. We have our suspicions about that villain, though.Please note that the above image doesn't reflect any potential lineup, but it's ridiculously crowded and felt appropriate for this piece...
April 3rd, 2020 - Cyborg
And this one is the biggest surprise of them all. Ray Fisher will make his first appearance as Vic Stone/Cyborg in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and will clearly have a crucial role to play in both Justice League films if they're grooming him for a solo film. No other details are presently available, but there's no change this one will be an origin story, so that's refreshing.
June 19th, 2020 - Green Lantern Corps
Fairly or unfairly, Green Lantern has the most working against him. The 2011 film failed to kickstart the DC Universe as planned, and received a lukewarm (at best) critical and box-office reception. There are, of course, ways around this.One way is to simply not make Hal Jordan the central Green Lantern of the movie. It was revealed at SDCC 2015 that the Green Lantern movie is now called Green Lantern Corps, and this one may focus on as many as three Green Lanterns, likely with John Stewart as the main Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Tyrese Gibson might be wearing that particular ring.
We've heard bits and pieces indicating that Green Lantern won't even show up until the end of Justice League, or possibly even Justice League 2. By the time 2020 rolls around, a decade will have passed, and by then the character won't be considered so radioactive by studio execs. Here's hoping they get him right this time.
And then there are the missing pieces that are either unconfirmed or simply don't have release dates yet...
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold
That's right...Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are coming to the big screen in what is described as a "superhero buddy cop movie." This one may or may not actually be called Blue and Gold.The Tracking Board (who first broke the news) reports that Flash and Arrowexecutive producer Greg Berlanti is going to direct and executive produce. Heroic Hollywood adds that Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers) may be involved to write the screenplay.
Sandman
Sandman isn't a superhero movie, so the fact that he wasn't involved in an announcement that primarily focused on high-profile franchises (along with the superhero slate, Warner Bros. focused on Lego movies and Harry Potter spinoffs). It isn't a DC Universe movie that will have any bearing on future Justice League films. But it is one of the most successful, enduring comics of all time.That being said, this one is in such active development that we would expect an announcement regarding a release date sooner than later. The Sandman movie has a producer (and potential star and director!) in Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with Jack Thorne writing. Neil Gaiman and David Goyer are also involved in the process, which Gordon-Levitt admits is a "complicated" one.
Dark Universe
Dark Universe might be more familiar to comic book fans under its comic name, Justice League Dark.
Guillermo del Toro was attached this one, which will feature the
supernatural characters from the DC Universe. Characters like Swamp
Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna, and possibly even John Constantine.
This one has been in development for some time, but del Toro recently confirmed that the script is finished, has been turned into Warner Bros., and may share some space in the DC Cinematic Universe.
The problem, though, is that Guillermo del
Toro, who had long been developing this one, appears to have left the
project. It might be dead in the water.
Legion of Super-Heroes
This one came as a big surprise when the rumor surfaced via Latino Review. The word is that Warner Bros., perhaps inspired by the runaway success of Guardians of the Galaxy, is looking to put together their own superheroic space opera.Nobody has been hired. Warner Bros. have simply placed this one on the table as a DC property potentially worth developing, and are inviting writers to make pitches. To be fair, it's likely that nearly every major DC property is open for something like this, but this is the first rumbling we've ever heard about a Legion of Super-Heroes movie. It's worth paying attention to, but it's tough to imagine, even under the best of circumstances, that we'll see this before 2018...assuming it's true at all.
That being said, if it were true, it's hard to imagine a cooler way to cement the WB/DC Cinematic Universe than with a 31st Century space-opera. While Marvel-esque crossovers probably aren't going to be the order of the day with these movies, the concept of showing how the Justice League (and specifically, Superman) influenced society 1,000 years in the future is plenty unique, and adds immediate gravitas to the other superhero movies on the calendar.
Let's just say, we really hope this one is true.
Metal Men
Perhaps the longest of the long-shots, the Metal Men movie is something that's been in discussion as far back as 2007. It's the most bizarre concept of the bunch, involving a mad scientist and his group of sentient elemental robots, but like Suicide Squad and Legion of Super-Heroes, perhaps that uniqueness is what makes this one so appealing. Warner Bros. can't be seen to copy the Marvel model too closely, so veering away from solo outings for traditional heroes and into this kind of territory might be the very best thing they can do for the brand.The Metal Men have also just received a New 52 facelift at the hands of writer Geoff Johns, executive producer of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and The Flash TV series. If they're a favorite of DC Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer, it would be wrong to count the Metal Men out, even if there's been no public movement on this project in recent memory.
It's worth noting that the same Wall Street Journal article where WB officially announced the Justice League movie also mentioned Shazam (at a time when everyone thought the project was dead and buried) and...Metal Men. Don't sleep on this one.
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