As far as the immediate future concerning upcoming DC movies goes, there are still four of these to look forward to in the coming year, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods being the first of the 2023 movie releases. Beyond that though, aside from Joker 2 being slated for a late 2024 release, this corner of the superhero movie market doesn’t have anything officially on the calendar. That being said, the past week has delivered news items claiming changed statuses for a number of these projects.
In late October, it was announced that The Suicide Squad’s James Gunn had been tapped to co-run the newly-created DC Studios with Peter Safran. Obviously Gunn isn’t willing to disclose any specifics about what he and Safran are cooking up, but he has shared a few teases on social media, such as calling Superman “a huge priority, if not the biggest priority.” More importantly though, last week Gunn responded to the reported DC movies shakeups that are underway, saying that "some of it is true, some of it is half-true, some of it is not true, & some of it we haven’t decided yet whether it’s true or not.” On that note, let’s go over where we currently stand with a handful of these projects, starting with Wonder Woman 3.
Wonder Woman 3
One could argue this is the most shocking piece of DC movie news since Batgirl was scrapped back in August. Until recently, Wonder Woman 3 was on track to be released someday, with writer/director Patty Jenkins intending to have the threequel’s action set in the present day rather than deliver another period piece. Now, however, Wonder Woman 3 is reportedly not moving forward and “is considered dead in its current incarnation.”
It was later reported that the Warner Bros. brass wasn’t impressed with Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 3 treatment and gave her notes to implement, though James Gunn and Peter Safran weren’t involved with this. Jenkins refused to implement said notes, and now she’s allegedly walked off the project. Days later, Jenkins said that she never walked off Wonder Woman 3, but was led to believe that there was nothing to be done with moving it forward. In any case, while it’s still possible that another Wonder Woman movie could get off the ground someday and Gal Gadot could even continue playing Diana of Themyscira, the Wonder Woman 3 that had been on the books is apparently no more.
Man Of Steel 2
UPDATE: Following the publication of this feature, it was announced that Henry Cavill will not return as Superman, and James Gunn is now writing a movie that will "be focusing on an earlier part of Superman's life," and thus feature a new actor playing the Kryptonian hero. The original text follows below.
Although Man of Steel, the movie that kicked the DCEU continuity, did get a follow-up in the form of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, many fans, as well as Henry Cavill, have wanted DC to make a direct sequel, i.e. Man of Steel 2. Following Cavill’s appearance in Black Adam’s end-credits scene, it looked like such a project could finally get off the ground, and it was even reported ahead of Black Adam’s release that Warner Bros. had an “intense desire” for Cavill to reprise Superman in something that would “essentially be Man of Steel 2.” As of now though, this project is essentially in stasis.
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight reportedly wrote a Man of Steel 2 treatment that “didn’t thrill Warner executives,” and once James Gunn and Peter Safran started steering the DC Studios ship, development ended. Warner Bros. is supposedly still fielding pitches for Man of Steel 2, but this sequel happening is by no means guaranteed. But what about Cavill’s Superman future overall? Well, that brings us to our next entry.
The Flash
Before anyone gets worried, The Flash is still slated to be released on June 16, 2023. However, the movie’s final edit hasn’t been locked into place yet. So although we’re guaranteed to see Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen team up with characters like Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, in the case of the cameo that Henry Cavill reportedly shot, the Warner Bros. executives are still decided whether or not to include this Superman appearance. So now we’re in an uncertain time that could go one of two ways assuming that Man of Steel 2 doesn’t make any progress: either Black Adam will be Cavill’s last time playing Superman in a while, it ever, or The Flash will be.
Black Adam 2
Whether Black Adam will indeed lose money or if it will make a bit of profit like Dwayne Johnson claims, it’s safe to say that it didn’t make much of a splash at the box office, which is especially disappointing following The Rock’s years of promising that his character would change the hierarchy of the DC universe. While the ending of Black Adam laid the groundwork for a sequel, THR claimed that such a project is now considered “unlikely” because of the first movie’s underwhelming commercial performance. This isn’t a done deal by any means, but Black Adam 2 doesn’t feel like a sure thing at the moment.
Batman Beyond
As already mentioned, Michael Keaton will reprise his version of Batman in The Flash next year, and he was going to don the cape and cowl again in Batgirl before that was shelved. As it turns out, Christina Hudson, the screenwriter behind The Flash and Birds of Prey, was also in the process of penning a Batman Beyond movie. Not only would we have seen Keaton’s Bruce Wayne mentor Terry McGinnis, the new Batman, but Hodson’s take on the material intended to reignite a romance between Bruce and Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, although it’s unclear if Michelle Pfeiffer would have reprised the role. Regardless, per THR, after James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought aboard DC, Hodson was instructed to stop working on Batman Beyond, so that’s the end of that… for now.
Crisis On Infinite Earths
The Flash is opening up the DCEU to the multiverse, and back in August, it was reported that prior to his exit from Warner Bros., then-DC Films president Walter Hamada had been interested in making a film adaption of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 1985-1986 event that collapsed DC Comics’ multiverse and rebooted continuity into just one universe. We’ve since learned that this Crisis movie would have brought back Henry Cavill’s Superman, but Dwayne Johnson took steps to make sure the Man of Steel returned in Black Adam first. With Hamada’s exit from WB, Crisis on Infinite Earths doesn’t appear to be in the cards anymore.
While there are various other DCEU-set movies that remain in development, including Black Canary and Static Shock, we’ll let you know if they’re similarly sidelined like most of the above entries. It’s also worth mentioning that these shakeups are not expected to interfere with Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe, which includes the greenlit The Batman 2 and a Penguin series for HBO Max.
