Warner Brother Announces Slate of DC Comics Films Through 2020, SUICIDE SQUAD, CYBORG In Line Up

While Marvel is still holding what their films will be close to their vest, Warner Brothers has scored a shot across their broadside by announce their DC Comics film slate through 2020 at a shareholder meeting today. And, naturally, there are some surprises.

The line-up is as follows:

March 25, 2016: Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
August 5, 2016: Suicide Squad

June 23, 2017: Wonder Woman
November 17, 2017: Justice League

March 23, 2018: The Flash
July 27, 2018: Aquaman

April 5, 2019: Shazam
June 14, 2019: Justice League 2

April 3, 2020: Cyborg
June 19, 2020: Green Lantern

I don’t know what your yardstick for success is, but Nikki Finke called four of the ten films on the list back in June, five or six if you want to give her credit for having Flash and Green Lantern get movies, even though she predicted one team-up film instead of two solo movies. One notable exclusion from her list to this one is Sandman, which was being actively developed by David Goyer and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. One has to wonder if this means the film has stalled or has been cancelled completely.

Or perhaps it will just take a lot of time to go through development. Suicide Squad has been in development since 2009 and will finally hit screens seven years later. The concept revolves around a group of superhuman criminals forced to work for a government agency carrying out suicide missions.

Another surprise entry is Cyborg, which will likely feature Ray Fisher in the lead, a young man who has most of his body replaced by weaponized mechanics after a lab explosion. This is another point in DC/Warner’s favor, as it marks the first African-American superhero to get his own solo feature film (that is if you don’t consider the supernatural horror character Blade to be a true superhero). This will beat Marvel to the punch, as they had a Black Panther film in development for years with no movement on a release.

The presentation finally confirmed that Jason Momoa will be playing Aquaman and announced that actor Ezra Miller (left, known for We Need To Talk About Kevin) will be playing The Flash. This puts the final nail in the coffin of many a fans’ dream of having a crossover between DC’s film and television properties. Even though he looks like he is in high school, Miller is only 2 years younger than TV’s Flash, the remarkable similar looking Grant Gustin, so it is unlikely that he will be playing the Flash’s protege, Wally West. Personally, I think Warners is missing out on a great opportunity here, considering the DC Characters’ TV presence is far more prevalent than Marvel’s at this point, which gives them a great chance to cross pollinate their properties.

And, the way that it is represented, it looks like the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern film is going to be rebooted. Good. Try not to screw the concept up again.

It appears Warner’s has learned their lesson and have given at least one week’s worth of breathing room  between any of their DC films and Marvel’s cinematic output. It’s nice to see them playing nice.

As you can see in the graphic above, Warners also announced that the Harry Potter tie-in Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them will be adapted as a trilogy, an installment coming every two years from 2016 on. We will also be getting three more Lego films. a Ninjago film in 2016, Lego Batman in 2017, and an official sequel, The Lego Movie 2, in 2018.