Warner Bros. is finally setting up its plan for the DC Comics universe and it’s pretty clear that Zack Snyder is getting to rule over it. While Man of Steel seemed to keep the Christopher Nolan influence from the Dark Knight films, Snyder is going to be fully in control from here on out.
Last week, we got a look at the possible DC Comics roster thanks to former Deadline writer Nikki Finke. She claimed to have seen a potential list of films that DC and Warner Bros. will announce at San Diego Comic Con next month.
Man of Steel laid the groundwork for a superhero world that seems stuck in a super-serious world, far different than the fun of the Marvel Universe. That Nolan ideal rubbed off on Snyder, who still kept his love of super action in the film. We can expect that to continue with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in May 2016.
While it might be a better idea to give us a Man of Steel 2 before Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros. wants to get the introductions out of the way. We already know that Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) will be joining Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) in the film. It’s also been reported that Jason Momoa is joining the cast as Aquaman. That means that four new characters (since the Batman of this movie isn’t the Dark Knight character) will be introduced in the film.
Snyder has been confirmed as the director for the Justice League movie, which was first expected in 2018. But Finke claims that it could be out as soon as May 2017, just a year after Dawn of Justice. That’s a pretty fast track.
Between those two movies will be Shazam!, a story that has never been brought to the big screen and has no talent attached. Shazam! is about Billy Batson, a young orphan who just has to yell “Shazam!” and becomes the DC universe’s Captain Marvel. That film is supposed to be out in July 2016, and unless DC has assembled the talent for that behind the scenes, that’s a very short time to put together a movie like this.
There will also be Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman movie, based on the Neil Gaiman creation on Christmas 2016. A Wonder Woman movie is set for July 2017 and a Flash/Green Lantern movie would be out on Christmas 2017. By May 2018, we may finally get a second solo Man of Steel movie.
All this is coming together very fast and WB hasn’t confirmed anything. Hollywood can move fast when it wants to and in this case, WB is desperate to reproduce the success of the Marvel world. Hopefully, the films don’t suffer because of the rush. It will also be curious to see who else will direct these films. Snyder has such a singular style (whether you like it or not), so it will be hard to get top talent who want to make their own mark on this universe.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com