With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in theaters and not a total flop, despite some less-than-enthusiastic reviews, the DC Cinematic Universe is finally underway.
Even taking a completely different approach than Marvel, however, Batman, Superman and the rest of their super friends have a lot of catching up to do.
Heres everything we know so far about each of the movies announced in DCs rapidly expanding cinematic universe and what audiences can expect.
Suicide Squad
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Ben Affleck, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Viola Davis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Common, Scott Eastwood, Adam Beach, Karen Fukuhara
Release date: Aug. 5, 2016
The rest: Think The Dirty Dozen but with a ragtag team of mostly second-tier DC supervillains such as Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang.
In case that sounds a bit lightweight next to the epic grudge match that was Batman v. Superman, there is at least one reason all of fandom will definitely be paying attention come August: Suicide Squad is set to feature the first on-screen appearance of Jared Letos Joker. Letos tatted-up take on Batmans archrival has already proven divisive among fans, but at the very least, the Oscar winner reportedly went full character actor for the role, getting up to all sorts of Joker-esque mischief, such as sending Margot Robbie a live rat as a present, according to dailymail.com.
After some of the negative reactions to the overly grim tone of Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. has opted to do extensive reshoots on Suicide Squad to lighten the mood, according to El Mayimbe of Latino-Review.com. Previously, actor Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot in the movie, told E! that things got so dark that director David Ayer hired an on-set therapist for his cast.
Wonder Woman
Director: Patty Jenkins
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Ewen Bremner
Release date: June 2, 2017
The rest: Even for a lot of Batman v Superman detractors, Gal Gadots Wonder Woman turned out to be a hit.
Appropriately enough, the characters first-ever standalone movie will be an origin story. Set 100 years before Batman v Superman, it will track Dianas encounter with a downed World War I pilot, Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine), and her first experience leaving the Amazonian island of Themyscira.
Speaking with IGN recently, Gadot said of her character in the upcoming film, Wonder Woman is different than the Wonder Woman that you're going to see in (Batman v Superman). Shes more naive and pure, and shes this young idealist who does not understand the complexities of men and life.
Justice League Part One
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Amber Heard, J.K. Simmons
Release date: Nov. 17, 2017
The rest: While several other members of DCs premier superhero team were glimpsed in Batman v Superman, this will be the first time they will all come together on the big screen.
Writer Chris Terrio, who co-wrote Batman v Superman and won an Oscar for his script for Argo, recently shed some light on what audiences can look forward to. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, he said, I expect Justice League will be tonally not quite as dark as Batman v Superman. From that point of view, I felt compelled to go back and try to lift us and myself into a different tonal place because I think when you write a darker film, sometimes you want to redeem it all a bit.
As for plot details, everything is speculation at this point. Rumored villains include Brainiac, whom Snyder previously indicated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly was a candidate down the road, and Darkseid.
The Flash
Director: Seth Grahame-Smith
Cast: Ezra Miller
Release date: March 16, 2018
The rest: So far, there isnt a whole lot of information about this one, and what there is might not inspire a ton of confidence in fans of the character.
Original writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), who after back-to-back-to-back hits can seemingly do no wrong, jumped ship to instead direct Lucasfilms Han Solo movie.
As a replacement, Warner Bros. made the somewhat head-scratching decision to hire writer Seth Grahame-Smith, whose past credits include comedy-horror duds such as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Dark Shadows, as well as the book on which the recent Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is based. The Flash will be the first movie Grahame-Smith has ever directed.
What is clear is that this version of the character will have nothing to do with Grant Gustins portrayal on TV. Like Gustin, star Ezra Miller will play the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen (sorry, all you Jay Gerrick nuts out there).
And thats about it.
Miller has been extremely enthusiastic about the opportunity to put his spin on the character, though, proclaiming his love of the TV show and comics on numerous occasions. I've been a comic guy, but I'm going in as hard as possible, he told MTV last July (via Bustle). Because I have a serious excuse to. I have the ultimate license to geek out so hard all the time!
Aquaman
Director: James Wan
Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard
Release date: July 27, 2018
The rest: Jason Momoas look as the Atlantean hero was revealed as far back as last year. With more than two years to go before Aquamans solo movie actually hits theaters, its not at all surprising that there havent been any huge developments since then.
Director James Wan, who is better known for horror movies such as Insidious and The Conjuring, stressed to IGN that he hopes Aquaman will be a lot of fun.
During a panel at Wondercon (as reported by Slashfilm), he told reporters he is excited at the prospect of bringing to the big screen a character that no one has ever seen before and being able to develop a world unlike anything explored so far in superhero movies.
Thats the thing about Aquaman thats cool, is hes not an alien, right? Wan said. Hes from our planet, and hes from a society that were not privy to in the context of the story. Isnt it crazy to think that weve explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff.
Shazam
Director: TBA
Cast: Dwayne Johnson
Release date: April 5, 2019
The rest: Shazam isnt directly tied to the Justice League and is said to have a tone unto itself. Despite that, Warner Bros. has confirmed that Shazam will take place in the same universe as its Justice League movies, according to Screen Rant, allowing for a possible Henry Cavill/The Rock throwdown at some future date.
Which is made all the more plausible by the fact that The Rock will not be playing the titular hero (aka Captain Marvel, but not to be confused with any of the multiple Marvel comics characters who bear that name), but rather the antihero Black Adam, a former slave-turned-villain-turned-hero who, in the comics, has occasionally run afoul of Superman, as well.
Justice League Part Two
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot
Release date: June 14, 2019
The rest: All we know so far is that Chris Terrio might not be coming back to write this one, as he told The Wall Street Journal, calling Justice League Part One the most rigorous intellectual exercise in his career as a writer.
Snyder, on the other hand, is most likely going to remain in the directors chair as there are plans, as reported by Cinema Blend, to film the two parts back-to-back a la Lord of the Rings.
Fans can also probably expect the core team of metahumans from the first film (i.e., Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg) to grow in the second installment. (Hawkman, anybody?)
Cyborg
Director: TBA
Cast: Ray Fisher
Release date: April 3, 2020
The rest: Thanks to Batman v Superman, there is already some indication of where the creative minds at Warner Bros. are headed with this character. Explaining his brief appearance in that film, Snyder told Entertainment Weekly, I really wanted to show Cyborgs birth because I feel like he plays such a strong part coming up, and I really wanted to give a sense of him. I really want (the audience) to know how far hes come.
According to Den of Geek, there are rumors that a Cyborg movie could wind up getting rejiggered into a Teen Titans movie.
Green Lantern Corps
Director: TBA
Cast: TBA
Release date: June 19, 2020
The rest: No concrete information about this one has been revealed as of yet, but there are some tantalizing rumors, including that audiences could see Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern played by Ryan Reynolds in the critically lambasted 2011 movie) team up with John Stewart (another Green Lantern, not the comedian) in what is being described as Lethal Weapon in space, according to Cinema Blend.
The fact that the title was changed last summer from Green Lantern, as originally announced, to Green Lantern Corps does seem to support this.
On a side note, it will be interesting to see whether a Green Lantern (or multiple Green Lanterns, for that matter) makes an appearance in either of the Justice League movies before taking off on his own solo adventure, or if he will be an MCU-style Phase 2 addition as the DCCU expands its scope.
Rumored/not yet announced
A solo Batman movie: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ben Affleck has written a script for his own Batman movie with the intention of possibly directing it as well. Longstanding rumors point to a possible release date sometime in 2018, although this has yet to be confirmed.
Lobo: Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs was recently hired to write a draft of this. Speculation is that Lobo could become the DCCU equivalent of Deadpool.
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold: Arrow and The Flash producer Greg Berlanti is allegedly directing this team-up, described as a superhero buddy cop movie, according to The Tracking Board.
Dark Universe (aka Justice League Dark): Guillermo del Toro wrote a script for a movie that would bring together all of DCs horror characters, such as John Constantine, Etrigan the Demon and Swamp Thing, among others.
Even taking a completely different approach than Marvel, however, Batman, Superman and the rest of their super friends have a lot of catching up to do.
Heres everything we know so far about each of the movies announced in DCs rapidly expanding cinematic universe and what audiences can expect.
Suicide Squad
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Ben Affleck, Cara Delevingne, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney, Viola Davis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Common, Scott Eastwood, Adam Beach, Karen Fukuhara
Release date: Aug. 5, 2016
The rest: Think The Dirty Dozen but with a ragtag team of mostly second-tier DC supervillains such as Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Captain Boomerang.
In case that sounds a bit lightweight next to the epic grudge match that was Batman v. Superman, there is at least one reason all of fandom will definitely be paying attention come August: Suicide Squad is set to feature the first on-screen appearance of Jared Letos Joker. Letos tatted-up take on Batmans archrival has already proven divisive among fans, but at the very least, the Oscar winner reportedly went full character actor for the role, getting up to all sorts of Joker-esque mischief, such as sending Margot Robbie a live rat as a present, according to dailymail.com.
After some of the negative reactions to the overly grim tone of Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. has opted to do extensive reshoots on Suicide Squad to lighten the mood, according to El Mayimbe of Latino-Review.com. Previously, actor Adam Beach, who plays Slipknot in the movie, told E! that things got so dark that director David Ayer hired an on-set therapist for his cast.
Wonder Woman
Director: Patty Jenkins
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Ewen Bremner
Release date: June 2, 2017
The rest: Even for a lot of Batman v Superman detractors, Gal Gadots Wonder Woman turned out to be a hit.
Appropriately enough, the characters first-ever standalone movie will be an origin story. Set 100 years before Batman v Superman, it will track Dianas encounter with a downed World War I pilot, Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine), and her first experience leaving the Amazonian island of Themyscira.
Speaking with IGN recently, Gadot said of her character in the upcoming film, Wonder Woman is different than the Wonder Woman that you're going to see in (Batman v Superman). Shes more naive and pure, and shes this young idealist who does not understand the complexities of men and life.
Justice League Part One
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Amber Heard, J.K. Simmons
Release date: Nov. 17, 2017
The rest: While several other members of DCs premier superhero team were glimpsed in Batman v Superman, this will be the first time they will all come together on the big screen.
Writer Chris Terrio, who co-wrote Batman v Superman and won an Oscar for his script for Argo, recently shed some light on what audiences can look forward to. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, he said, I expect Justice League will be tonally not quite as dark as Batman v Superman. From that point of view, I felt compelled to go back and try to lift us and myself into a different tonal place because I think when you write a darker film, sometimes you want to redeem it all a bit.
As for plot details, everything is speculation at this point. Rumored villains include Brainiac, whom Snyder previously indicated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly was a candidate down the road, and Darkseid.
The Flash
Director: Seth Grahame-Smith
Cast: Ezra Miller
Release date: March 16, 2018
The rest: So far, there isnt a whole lot of information about this one, and what there is might not inspire a ton of confidence in fans of the character.
Original writer-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie), who after back-to-back-to-back hits can seemingly do no wrong, jumped ship to instead direct Lucasfilms Han Solo movie.
As a replacement, Warner Bros. made the somewhat head-scratching decision to hire writer Seth Grahame-Smith, whose past credits include comedy-horror duds such as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Dark Shadows, as well as the book on which the recent Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is based. The Flash will be the first movie Grahame-Smith has ever directed.
What is clear is that this version of the character will have nothing to do with Grant Gustins portrayal on TV. Like Gustin, star Ezra Miller will play the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen (sorry, all you Jay Gerrick nuts out there).
And thats about it.
Miller has been extremely enthusiastic about the opportunity to put his spin on the character, though, proclaiming his love of the TV show and comics on numerous occasions. I've been a comic guy, but I'm going in as hard as possible, he told MTV last July (via Bustle). Because I have a serious excuse to. I have the ultimate license to geek out so hard all the time!
Aquaman
Director: James Wan
Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard
Release date: July 27, 2018
The rest: Jason Momoas look as the Atlantean hero was revealed as far back as last year. With more than two years to go before Aquamans solo movie actually hits theaters, its not at all surprising that there havent been any huge developments since then.
Director James Wan, who is better known for horror movies such as Insidious and The Conjuring, stressed to IGN that he hopes Aquaman will be a lot of fun.
During a panel at Wondercon (as reported by Slashfilm), he told reporters he is excited at the prospect of bringing to the big screen a character that no one has ever seen before and being able to develop a world unlike anything explored so far in superhero movies.
Thats the thing about Aquaman thats cool, is hes not an alien, right? Wan said. Hes from our planet, and hes from a society that were not privy to in the context of the story. Isnt it crazy to think that weve explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff.
Shazam
Director: TBA
Cast: Dwayne Johnson
Release date: April 5, 2019
The rest: Shazam isnt directly tied to the Justice League and is said to have a tone unto itself. Despite that, Warner Bros. has confirmed that Shazam will take place in the same universe as its Justice League movies, according to Screen Rant, allowing for a possible Henry Cavill/The Rock throwdown at some future date.
Which is made all the more plausible by the fact that The Rock will not be playing the titular hero (aka Captain Marvel, but not to be confused with any of the multiple Marvel comics characters who bear that name), but rather the antihero Black Adam, a former slave-turned-villain-turned-hero who, in the comics, has occasionally run afoul of Superman, as well.
Justice League Part Two
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot
Release date: June 14, 2019
The rest: All we know so far is that Chris Terrio might not be coming back to write this one, as he told The Wall Street Journal, calling Justice League Part One the most rigorous intellectual exercise in his career as a writer.
Snyder, on the other hand, is most likely going to remain in the directors chair as there are plans, as reported by Cinema Blend, to film the two parts back-to-back a la Lord of the Rings.
Fans can also probably expect the core team of metahumans from the first film (i.e., Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg) to grow in the second installment. (Hawkman, anybody?)
Cyborg
Director: TBA
Cast: Ray Fisher
Release date: April 3, 2020
The rest: Thanks to Batman v Superman, there is already some indication of where the creative minds at Warner Bros. are headed with this character. Explaining his brief appearance in that film, Snyder told Entertainment Weekly, I really wanted to show Cyborgs birth because I feel like he plays such a strong part coming up, and I really wanted to give a sense of him. I really want (the audience) to know how far hes come.
According to Den of Geek, there are rumors that a Cyborg movie could wind up getting rejiggered into a Teen Titans movie.
Green Lantern Corps
Director: TBA
Cast: TBA
Release date: June 19, 2020
The rest: No concrete information about this one has been revealed as of yet, but there are some tantalizing rumors, including that audiences could see Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern played by Ryan Reynolds in the critically lambasted 2011 movie) team up with John Stewart (another Green Lantern, not the comedian) in what is being described as Lethal Weapon in space, according to Cinema Blend.
The fact that the title was changed last summer from Green Lantern, as originally announced, to Green Lantern Corps does seem to support this.
On a side note, it will be interesting to see whether a Green Lantern (or multiple Green Lanterns, for that matter) makes an appearance in either of the Justice League movies before taking off on his own solo adventure, or if he will be an MCU-style Phase 2 addition as the DCCU expands its scope.
Rumored/not yet announced
A solo Batman movie: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ben Affleck has written a script for his own Batman movie with the intention of possibly directing it as well. Longstanding rumors point to a possible release date sometime in 2018, although this has yet to be confirmed.
Lobo: Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs was recently hired to write a draft of this. Speculation is that Lobo could become the DCCU equivalent of Deadpool.
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold: Arrow and The Flash producer Greg Berlanti is allegedly directing this team-up, described as a superhero buddy cop movie, according to The Tracking Board.
Dark Universe (aka Justice League Dark): Guillermo del Toro wrote a script for a movie that would bring together all of DCs horror characters, such as John Constantine, Etrigan the Demon and Swamp Thing, among others.