With Warner Brothers still reeling from the disappointing box office returns for last month’s Justice League, there has been some question as to how the studio is going to proceed with its DC Comics Extended Universe superhero film franchise. This weekend at Comic Con Experience 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the studio gave a presentation listing several titles it claims to have in the pipeline for the future.
The titles listed include Aquaman, Wonder Woman 2, Suicide Squad 2, the Flash-centric film Flashpoint, Justice League Dark, Batgirl, Shazam, Green Lantern Corps and The Batman.
Overall, the list doesn’t contain too many surprises, as it replicates much of what was announce a few months ago at San Diego Comic Con. Aquaman is already in production and as one of their only unqualified success, you can be assured that Warner Brothers is doing a Wonder Woman sequel. Flashpoint and Shazam are also gearing up towards production. The one unexpected title here is Justice League Dark. The film featuring a number of DC Comics’ supernatural-themed heroes coming together to stop a world end threat has been in development for some time. With the lackluster reception that Justice League has received, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some behind-the-scenes discussions about changing the project’s name.
But not every title named may find its way to theaters. Warners seems to put a lot of things into development and some projects don’t survive the process. With writer/director Joss Whedon working on Batgirl and War For The Planet Of The Apes’ Matt Reeves developing The Batman, odds are good that both will eventually get into production. Ironically, the Green Lantern Corps may be the one title that doesn’t receive a greenlight. Although the project currently has David S Goyer and Justin Rhodes working on a screenplay, no director is attached yet.
What’s missing from the list is also interesting. Suicide Squad 2 seems to be the only one of the four projects that have been reported in development featuring actress Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn character. The Harley solo film is most likely at too early a stage in development to know if it will eventually be going forward or not. The Harley/Joker film film always seemed doubtful given that Jared Leto, who played Joker in Suicide Squad, didn’t have many good things to say about the experience. His return to the franchise seems unlikely, though a recasting wouldn’t be out of the question.
Missing from the line is a solo film featuring Justice League member Cyborg. There hasn’t been much buzz about the character coming out of the film, so it is possible that Warners was putting the cart before the horse when they initially announced that he would be getting his own solo cinematic adventure. Other rumored films missing from the announcement are Man Of Steel 2, Deadshot, Black Adam, Nightwing and Deathstroke, all of which had been previously rumored to being in development.
But as has been reported for several months leading up to the release of Justice League, the studio has plans to reevaluate the future of the franchise and the separate films that make it up. If that is still the case, and recent reports indicate that whether or not a proposed purchase of Time/Warner by AT&T, some sort of corporate restructuring among the studio executives will be happening. When that happens, fully expect that the slate that was reiterated this weekend to undergo some changes.
