In addition to their surprise announcement that their Flash movie was mutating into an adaptation of the Flash-centric Flashpoint comic book miniseries, Warner Brothers revealed the next films that they hope to produce as part of their DC Comics Expanded Universe film franchise.
The titles as presented at the beginning of the studio’s two hour panel at San Diego Comic Con this afternoon, those films are Shazam, Suicide Squad 2, The Batman, Justice League Dark, Wonder Woman 2, Green Lantern Corps, and Batgirl.
No dates were attached to any of these projects. Warners has been reportedly holding off on making any definitive decisions about their slate moving forward until the see how well Justice League is received at the end of the year.
A couple of notes –
- There’s a couple of titles here that we knew were definitely coming down the pike. Shazam has already been announced as beginning production early next year, despite the fact that we know nothing about a possible cast. David Sandberg is set to direct. Wonder Woman 2 was also a no-brainer for appearing on the list, given that Wonder Woman is the franchise’s domestic box office champ. The Batman, Suicide Squad 2 and Batgirl have all had some active developments on them over the last several months.
- Green Lantern Corps is starting to seem like more of a priority for the studio between its placement here and a mention of Green Lanterns in the new Justice League trailer that premiered during the presentation this afternoon.
- It is nice to see that Justice League Dark looks to be a priority for the studio as well. It was disappointing when Guillermo Del Toro, who first started developing the project for Warners, walked away. But magic and the supernatural has always been a big component of the DC Comics universe and it is nice to see that it will factor into the film universe as well.
- It should be noticed that one title that is not here is Cyborg. Ray Fisher’s hero is the least known of the members of the Justice League, and while the studio originally had a solo film penciled onto their schedule for Cyborg, it looks as if the studio may be having seconds thoughts. Is it because they don’t like what they see in Fisher’s performance? Perhaps they are just leery about whether or not the public will connect with the character. If Cyborg does appear to be a breakout character from Justice League, don’t be surprised to see a solo film getting fast tracked.
- Other titles that we aren’t seeing here are Man Of Steel 2 and Justice League 2, which is a bit surprising. Once Superman returns in Justice League (come on, that’s not really a spoiler at this point because he’s starting to show up in advertising material) I would think that the studio would want to get him back up on the screen in a solo adventure.
