Hollywood tipster Nikki Finke has posted a list of the Justice League slate of movies that Warner Bros. is expected to announce at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. (Which is only in a month? Geez.) The list of films is extensive and seems to introduce an Avengers-style shared movie universe, but is it accurate?
The list, starting with 2016’s Batman/Superman team-up:
May 2016 – Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
July 2016 – Shazam
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Christmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2
The list also includes the recently announced Sandman film and slates it for Christmas 2016.
Justice League and Wonder Woman movies would be a natural extension of what we know about Dawn of Justice, which features Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, Cyborg, and hints at the formation of the Justice League, but do the other films make sense? Shazam is an interesting addition to the slate, but is it a real possibility or is Finke simply drawing on reports of the production being halted back in December 2013?
The Flash and Green Lantern team-up film looks like a fun idea, but will it be separate from the Flash television show (also owned by WB) that will debut this fall, or will it be an extension of the show? Finke’s report suggests that we will be seeing the television version of Flash cross into the films: “cameos [for Dawn of Justice] will include the already known Cyborg and Flash.” Finke goes on to say that Ryan Reynolds will not return as Green Lantern.
If true, that means we could get three team-style DC superhero movies in the space of a year and a half, with Dawn of Justice including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and more, Flash and Green Lantern including the two titular heroes and possibly Arrow (since Flash and Arrow exist in the same television universe), and everyone and their weird friends banding together in Justice League.
Finke’s report is not confirmed by Warner Bros, but it seems to match up with a statement by Kevin Smith that Bleeding Cool highlighted in May that Dawn of Justice kicks off a slate of “five or six films […] supposed to tell one massive story, which is all Justice League oriented.” While none of the above has been confirmed, it’s possible that Finke’s report is a controlled leak on the part of Warner Bros., which is expected to announce a film slate at this year’s SDCC that can go head to head against Marvel’s as-yet unconfirmed Phase 3 slate of films. Revealing not one, but three Avengers-style team films slated for 2016 and 2017 boldly asserts Warner Bros./DC’s characters during a lull period where Marvel won’t be able to counter with an Iron Man, Captain America, or Avengers film. Captain America 3 is currently slated for the same release date as Dawn of Justice, but that just further helps what WB’s overall message may be: Marvel’s reign is over, justice has dawned.
While Finke’s report may be truth, or close to the truth, there’s still one curious aspect to it: where’s Batman?
L’il Batman’s creepy smile is courtesy of Yale Stewart’s tremendous JL8 webcomic.
