Studio has also announced 8 new DC Comics films through to 2020

Aug 7, 2014 07:18 GMT  ·  By
Warner Bros. has the entire Justice League cinematic universe all planned out
   Warner Bros. has the entire Justice League cinematic universe all planned out

Warner Bros. is backing away from Marvel. Both studios had movies coming out on May 6, 2016: Warners had “Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice” and Marvel had “Captain America 3,” and in various press statements, both made it clear that they had no intention of giving up the date.

Well, Warners just blinked. In a statement to Variety, the movie studio has announced the decision to move up the release date for the highly anticipated “Batman V. Superman,” to March 25, 2016, thus leaving the May 6 spot to Marvel and its Cap.

It’s not all bad news, though: in the same statement, Warners has announced the release dates for no less than 9 (nine!) DC Comics movies and 2 “event films” that are apparently not DC-related. The films don’t have a title, but movie pundits believe they already know which one is which.

So here’s the release schedule for Warners’ DC properties through to 2020:

“Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” – March 25, 2016 Untitled DC Film – August 5, 2016 (probably Shazam) Untitled DC Film – June 23, 2017 (probably “Justice League”) Untitled DC Film – November 17, 2017 (probably The Sandman) Untitled DC Film – March 23, 2018 (the Green Lantern-Flash team up or, hopefully, the Wonder Woman standalone movie) Untitled DC Film – July 27, 2018 (possibly “Man of Steel 2”) Untitled DC Film – April 5, 2019 Untitled DC Film - June 14, 2019 (probably “The Batman,” Ben Affleck’s standalone movie) Untitled DC Film – April 3rd, 2020

Untitled DC Film – June 19th, 2020

The not DC-related “event films” will be out on November 16, 2018 and November 20, 2020.

This 9-movie schedule is even better than anything fans could have dreamed of: in June this year, word got out that Warners would probably announce at Comic-Con 2014 in San Diego 7 new DC movies through to 2018, including “Batman V. Superman.” Either way you look at it, this is great news for fans.

Of course, that all depends on how “Batman V. Superman” fares at the box office. Zack Snyder’s Superman reboot, “Man of Steel,” which came out last year, wasn’t exactly embraced universally by fans because many felt it was too dark and too violent. Even more objected to Superman’s final gesture of killing General Zod, after he literally destroyed half of Metropolis trying to capture him.

Anyone who knows anything about Superman knows that he’s not a killer and that he would rather die first than have humans injured. So no wonder then that fans believed the film had pushed things a bit too far.

To make matters even worse, the decision to have Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was widely criticized because they all seem odd choices for such iconic roles.

In other words, Warners has a lot weighing on “Batman V. Superman” and more so now that they based an entire franchise on a movie that’s not even out for another 2 years. Should it not perform as expected, it will bring the entire Justice League universe down with it, before it even gets to see the light of day.