Hollywood and fanboys have been losing their minds following the recent announcement by James Gunn and the new plans for the future of the DC Universe known simply as the DCU. Gunn laid out a plan that included five films and five television series, hinting that this was not all the installments and that more news would be arriving soon. Gunn and co-head of DC Studios Peter Safran have teased a ten-year plan for the franchise. It is an ambitious plan for the brand that has had a difficult time.
The news is exciting but also familiar to DC fans. In 2014, following the release of Man of Steel, Warner Bros. was investing heavily in movies based on DC heroes. In an investor meeting in October 2014, Warner Bros. announced ten different films that would be released up until 2020. It was an ambitious plan and was set to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yet as any fan knows, things did not go as planned.
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By the second film, things started to go off the rail with some projects getting delayed, others being reworked, and some being straight-up canceled. The studio set films that were not part of the original plan and struggled to unite its various franchise due to actors walking away and behind-the-scenes feud. While everyone hopes the new DC slate goes off smoothly, take a look back at the original plans for the DCU and see how it all played out.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Warner Bros.
Status: Released
Originally conceived as Man of Steel 2, the project was quickly reformatted into Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice just before Comic-Con 2013. Warner Bros. invested heavily in the film, wanting it to kickstart their shared cinematic universe. The movie had a number of release dates including July 17, 2015, to May 6, 2016, to finally March 25, 2016, by the time of the investor meeting.
The film opened and was in many ways a hit, but also did underperform to the studio’s estimation as it failed to crack $1 billion worldwide as many expected. Reviews for the film were very negative, criticizing how dark the subject matter was. The poor reaction to the film sent Warner Bros. into a panic, and they quickly began re-editing and reworking other projects leading to a series of dominos that would hurt many of the films and the overall franchise.
Suicide Squad
Warner Bros.
Suicide Squad was announced in September 2014 with David Ayer set to write and direct, and the film would be released on August 5, 2016. Ayer had only six weeks to write the screenplay and casting for the movie had begun in October 2014. Suicide Squad in many ways was greenlit as a response to Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released one month prior and had been a massive box office hit (funnily enough, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn would be hired to direct the sequel, The Suicide Squad, bringing everything full circle).
Suicide Squad was the subject of many behind-the-scenes reshoots and re-edits following the poor reaction to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. The movie’s trailer set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was such a hit that Warner Bros. hired the trailer company to re-edit the movie. Suicide Squad was another case of a movie that was a box office hit but critically hated and left many fans disappointed. In the years since director David Ayer has spoken about how his version of the movie was drastically different and has been campaigning for “The Ayer Cut” to be released but it appears nothing has or will come of it.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman was finally set to get her own feature film after being in development hell for years. She would make her first on-screen appearance in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice before she headlined her own film, which would be a prequel and help set the stage for Justice League. Gal Gadot was cast in December 2013, and director Patty Jenkins joined the project in April 2015. Unlike many of the other films, Wonder Woman was not delayed but actually bumped up. It was originally set for June 23, 2017, but was bumped up to June 2, 2017.
Wonder Woman was the first true critical success for the DCU, garnering positive reviews from fans and critics alike. The movie was a pop culture phenomenon and a box office smash hit. Wonder Woman seemed to be one of the few elements of the DCU that audiences responded positively to and in July 2017 just one month after the film’s release Warner Bros. announced a sequel that would become Wonder Woman 1984.
Justice League Part 1
Status: Sort of Released
When Warner Bros. first announced their DC slate, the studio had planned to make Justice League a two-part film that would film back to back. However following the disappointing reaction to Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the film was quickly reworked into one movie and made as a test for how audiences would respond to it and then they would move forward on a sequel.
The production of Justice League was a nightmare, with multiple competing visions of the film, Warner Bros. heavily re-editing the film and bringing on Joss Whedon to replace Zack Snyder after the director gave up battling with Warner Bros. for control on the movie following the tragic passing of his daughter.
The film was set for release on November 17, 2017, and it made that release date, although the film likely would have benefited from a delay the studio vetoed that due to the pending acquisition by AT&T and it would have impacted several high rankings official bonuses. Justice League was another critical and financial disappointment for the studio. Fans would not see Zack Snyder’s original vision for Justice League until 2021, but by that point, it was too late; the damage was done, and the franchise has been in recovery mode ever since.
The Flash
Status: Delayed and just barely set for release
While the main trinity of DC superheroes was to get movies before Justice League two of the team’s biggest members, The Flash and Aquaman, were going to get films in between Justice League Part 1 and Part 2. The Flash was going to kick things off with a March 23, 2018 release date. However, the film underwent multiple delays due to directors dropping out and the creative vision for the film changing.
The movie is just now barely set to come out, with a June 16, 2023 release date. The movie will now be arriving nine years after it was first announced and six years after it was originally supposed to be released. Now instead of being a lead into a new Justice League movie, the film is essentially being refitted to being the end of the DCU as fans know it and the beginning of James Gunn’s new vision for the franchise.
Aquaman
Aquaman was in many was considered a joke character, but when Warner Bros. announced their plans for an Aquaman movie it was also confirmed that Jason Momoa would play the title character first in a cameo for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice before being a part of Justice League. James Wan signed on to direct Aquaman in June 2015. The film was originally set as a summer movie with a July 27, 2018 release and was bumped back to October 5, 2018, before settling in on December 21, 2018.
The holiday release date might have been the best thing for Aquaman, as without a Star Wars movie that had dominated the season for the previous three years, Aquaman became the event movie of the season. It grossed $1 billion worldwide making it both the highest-grossing film in the DCU and the highest-grossing movie worldwide based on a DC Comics character. Aquaman was a character so absurd the idea of him getting a movie was a running joke on Entourage, and now he is one of the most viable superhero properties on the planet with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom now set to dominate the 2023 holiday season.
Shazam!
Shazam! was announced alongside the other DCU project during the board of investors meeting, and was set for release on April 5, 2019. Because of how far the movie was set for release during the announcement and it not being tied up to the major Justice League projects Shazam! actually ended up meeting its original release date with no changes.
The biggest change that happened during Shazam! development was the original plan was to include Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, but in January 2017 due to the stars rising persona the decision was made to give the character and actor his own spin-off movie separate from Shazam! Shortly after the decision was made David F. Sandberg joined as director and Zachary Levi was cast as the title hero. The movie was a hit with critics and audiences, and Warner Bros. announced a sequel just days after the movie opened in theaters and finally hits theaters on March 17, 2023, titled Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Justice League Part 2
Status: Canceled
Following Warner Bros.’ decision to make Justice League one film as opposed to two, the planned sequel that was scheduled to open in theaters on June 14, 2019, was canceled. Details have reportedly come out about Justice League Part II, which would have seen Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom consisting of characters from past DCU films like Doctor Poison from Wonder Woman, Black Manta from Aquaman, Riddler from a planned Ben Affleck Batman movie, and Captain Cold from the original version of The Flash teaming up to bring forth Darkseid.
Riddler would have solved the anti-life equation, Darkseid and his forces would have come to Earth, Lois Lane would die and Superman would be corrupted setting the stage for a planned third film and making sense of the Knightmare seen in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. While the film never did materialize, hints of what might have been were seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Cyborg
Cyborg was the final member of the Justice League set to get his own film. The movie was announced back in 2014 but was not scheduled to open until April 3, 2020. Played by Ray Fisher, Cyborg was a vital part of Zack Snyder’s Justice League but his role was heavily reduced in the theatrical cut of the movie. Had the movie kept on track it would have likely been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down theaters before its planned release date. Word on the Cyborg movie quietly died down, but the character was intended to be part of The Flash.
The character was cut from the film following actor Ray Fisher’s allegations against Warner Bros. for interfering with an internal investigation into the misconduct on the set of the re-shoots of Justice League from Joss Whedon and Geoff Johns. Fisher vowed to never work with Warner Bros. again under then DC Films President Walter Hamada saying he was enabling the abuse. Fisher walked away from the part and it was said that the role would not be recast.
Green Lantern Corps
DC Comics
Following 2011’s disastrous Green Lantern staring Ryan Reynolds, DC and Warner Bros. gave the franchise a break. The character was notably left out of the Justice League movie despite Green Lantern being an important part of the team’s origins in most stories. A past Green Lantern was shown in a flashback, and the character of John Stewart was set to appear in a future Justice League movie.
Warner Bros. did want to relaunch the film franchise with Green Lantern Corp. and set a June 19, 2020, release date which would have been nine years and two days to the date that the 2011 film opened in theaters with the hope that the distance would give the franchise time to recover. Yet despite Green Lantern being a major DC character the film never seemed to gain traction and was then reworked into a television series for HBO Max. That version of the project would feature various generations of Lanterns, but that version was also canceled and seems to have been reworked into the upcoming Lanterns which is part of the DCU.
