Not to be outdone by the announcement of Robert Downey Jr. joining Captain America 3 to kick off the Civil War, DC and Warner Bros. made some major announcements of their own.
Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara revealed the dates for 10 movies coming out between now and 2020. Some dates were previously known, but some were entirely new. You can see the list he revealed below.
- March 25, 2016: Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice
- August 05, 2016: Suicide Squad
- June 23, 2017: Wonder Woman
- November 12, 2017: The Justice League: Part One
- March 23, 2018: The Flash
- July 27, 2018: Aquaman
- April 05, 2019: Shazam
- June 14, 2019: The Justice League: Part Two
- April 03, 2020: Cyborg
- June 19, 2020: Green Lantern
Tsujihara said that this isn’t a complete list of the movies getting released and that Superman and Batman have solo films in development. It was also announced officially that Ezra Miller will be playing the Flash and that Jason Momoa will be playing Aquaman.
Warner Bros. and DC are definitely being ambitious in their plans for the DC Cinematic Universe. They’re obviously hoping for the same success as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As I’ve said before, though, I don’t know if DC will find the same success as Marvel. Marvel had a plan from the beginning and DC seems to be making things up as it goes along.
One of the greatest strengths of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its continuity. There has been tremendous continuity among all of Marvel’s movies as well as its current and upcoming television series. Agent Coulson was an integral part of the Marvel movies and has anchored Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
DC doesn’t appear to have the same continuity. Arrow has been very successful for DC and just spun-off the new Flash series. Yet, instead of building upon its small screen success and incorporating The Flash into its movie universe, DC has cast a different actor for its Flash movie.
I am excited that Warner Bros. and DC will fnally bring a female super hero to the big screen in her own movie. Wonder Woman is one of DC’s big three heroes and definitely has the popularity to justify her own movie. As much as I love Marvel, it doesn’t have a female super hero as popular as Wonder Woman. I love Carol Danvers but no one who’s never read a comic knows anything about Ms. Marvel.
I’m also looking forward to Suicide Squad. Guardians of the Galaxy showed that moviegoers are ready for some anti-heroes and the Suicide Squad definitely fits that bill. A team composed of convicted criminals, the Suicide Squad does covert ops for the government in exchange for less jail time. Marvel’s Thunderbolts are a lot like the Suicide Squad and I would have loved to see them in their own movie. With the release of Suicide Squad, though, I don’t think that will ever happen.
I’m not nearly as excited about DC’s announcement as I was Marvel’s. I’ll definitely see all of these movies but I probably won’t be as invested in the DC Cinematic Universe as I am the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If nothing else, over the years to come, DC will provide me plenty of content for The Christian Nerd.
What are your thoughts about DC’s plans for its Cinematic Universe?
I feel like DC has to earn the trust and reputation that Marvel has gained. I really wanted to love Man of Steel. I liked it but didn’t love it.
It’s like DC doesn’t understand the depth and subtext of their superheroes. Yes, the Nolan Batman movies were great, but that had more to do with Nolan than Warner Bros and the DC franchise.
Avengers was really about who’s really in charge, who will you kneel to. Captain America: Winter Soldier was really about freedom vs control. Being the nerd that I am, I watched the Avengers commentary and heard how Joss Whedon, when writing the Iron Man vs Thor fight scene (which he was told was a must in the movie), said he didn’t want it coming from some misunderstanding but a difference in ideology, because he said “then you don’t just have a fight, you have conflict.”
Whoever is overseeing Marvel, especially their scripts is doing a great job, not just in continuity of the universe, but in continuity of subtext and meaning. (Hopefully, they’ll gain the rights to Spiderman soon and get it back on track). Until DC wraps their heads around that, they might want to stick to the small screen. Instead, I’m afraid they’re going to churn out semi-money making superhero movies take notes more from Michael Bay’s transformers formula than from Marvel’s depth of character development and thematic subtext.