A ton of superhero movie news came out this week. After the well-received Lego Movie made $468 million dollars, a sequel seemed inevitable. Not only are we getting a sequel, but a spinoff film featuring Batman is going to be released before The Lego Movie 2 on May 26, 2017. Lego Movie 2 has been pushed back a year to 2018. This new Batman film will star Will Arnett from the original film, and will be directed by Chris McKay, a cowriter of The Lego Movie. This is not the only DC character that will be given a film.
On Oct. 14, Warner Brothers announced their new slate for the future DC Cinematic Universe. After the much anticipated Man of Steel sequel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, comes out on March 26, 2016 and a Suicide Squad movie will also come out later in 2016. This will be the second villain team up movie in 2016, as the Spiderman spinoff Sinister Six is scheduled for November 2016.
Next up, a Wonder Woman movie will hit theaters in 2017, with the titular character being played by Gal Gadot. Gadot will debut the character in Dawn of Justice.
Then, later in 2017, the much anticipated Justice League will premiere, presumably featuring the ensemble cast of superheroes assembled so far. Justice League will be split into two parts, meaning the 2017 film is Part 1, and will be directed by Man of Steel director Zac Snyder.
The two 2018 films are The Flash, staring Ezra Miller, and Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa. This Flash will presumably be a separate character than the Flash depicted on the CW TV show.
2019 will bring a Shazam movie, staring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam, Sham’s twin brother. Also in 2019 will be the follow up to Justice League Part 1 with part 2 coming out, also directed by Zach Snyder.
Finally, in 2020, a Cyborg movie starring Ray Fisher will hit theaters as well as a new Green Lantern movie, after the 2011 film Green Lantern disappointed fans, critics and the box office alike.
So, DC is certainly starting to catch up to Marvel. Yet Marvel might have one upped them again. Captain America 3 has been slated for a May 6, 2016 release date for quite some time. Yet a report from Variety magazine indicates that Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to reprise his role as Iron Man, which leads to speculation that this film will be based off the Civil War comic book arc. This story arc involves a mandatory superhero registration act, similar to The Incredibles. Captain America is against this, and Tony Stark is for it. They each gain a following of fellow superheroes, and there is an all-out war.
Of course, in the cinematic universe, the Sony and Fox own the rights to X Men and Spiderman, so Captain America 3 will have to change the story quite a bit, but that is fine as Captain America 2 strayed from the Winter Soldier story line and yielded awesome results. So, the superhero film genre is certainly not in decline.
