DC's Schedule Slate of Comic Movies

These last few weeks, a ton of news has come out about DC's plans for their Justice League movie and others.  Some of it confounds me and other details make sense.

According to sources banking on a report by one Nikki Finke, here's what DC has planned:

    • May 2016 – Batman v Superman

    • July 2016 – Shazam

    • Xmas 2016 – Sandman

    • May 2017 – Justice League

    • July 2017 – Wonder Woman

    • Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up

    • May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

I get Batman vs Superman.  But I'm confounded about Shazam and Sandman.  Now Shazam used to be called Captain Marvel, and is now called Shazam.  Marvel forced the issue and copyrighted Captain Marvel.  But he has an alter ego in the form of Billy Batson, a 15-year-old troubled teen.  The man is powered by magic and things.

Shazam stands for S     for the Wisdom of Solomon; H     for the Strength of Hercules; A     for the Stamina of Atlas; Z     for the Power of Zeus, A     for the Courage of Achilles and M     for the Speed of Mercury.

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Sandman? Really?  What's that about?  We'll then get the Justice League movie in 2017, a Wonder Woman movie followed by a Flash and Green Lantern movie.  Word on the street is that Ryan Reynolds WILL NOT be Green Lantern.

Then there's a second Man of Steel movie in 2018.

The order seems wacky.  I can't see Shazam or Sandman actually doing well for them, and then seeing more mainstream DC characters showing up after it's all said and done.


But there are also claims being made that we're going to be seeing Cyborg, Flash and maybe a Green Lantern appearance in Batman vs Superman.

THEN there are the rumors of who will show up in the Justice League movie, that being the characters of Martian Manhunter and Darkseid.

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So suddenly DC/WB is starting to play serious catch up to Marvel, or at least, start trying.  But we saw how Spiderman 2 shoved so many characters in a movie, and it fell somewhat flat.  Folks weren't amused and the story seemed to suffer from the overstuffing of characters, just to launch them into their licensed world of Marvel movies.

And now this, where Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice is packing so many characters in there, that it may become a diluted story. Or, the Justice League prequel.

And then there's the competitive side of things.

Let's look at the mass of superhero movies that could be coming out for movie consumers:

May 1, 2015 – Avengers: Age of Ultron – Marvel Studios
June 9, 2015 – Fantastic Four – 20th Century Fox
July 17, 2015 – Ant-Man – Marvel Studios
May 6, 2016 – Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice – Warner Bros.
May 6, 2016 – Captain America 3 – Marvel Studios
May 27, 2016 – X-Men: Apocalypse – 20th Century Fox
June 10, 2016 – The Amazing Spider-Man 3 - Sony
July 8, 2016 – Doctor Strange – Marvel Studios
July 2016 – Shazam – Warner Bros.
August 2016 – Gambit – 20th Century Fox (?)
November 4, 2016 – Price Namor the Submariner - Universal (?)
November 2016 – Thor 3 – Marvel Studios (?)
December 2016 – Sandman – Warner Bros.
March 3, 2017 – The Wolverine 2 – 20th Century Fox
May 2017 – Justice League – Warner Bros.
May 5, 2017 – Avengers 3 – Marvel Studios
June 2017 – Sinister Six  (?)
July 2017 – Captain Marvel – Marvel Studios (?)
July 2017 – Wonder Woman – Warner Bros.
Jul 14, 2017 – Fantastic Four 2 – 20th Century Fox
November 2017 – Black Panther – Marvel Studios (?)
December 2017 – Venom - Sony (?)
December 2017 – Flash & Green Lantern Team-up – Warner Bros.
March 2018 - Deadpool (?)
April 2018 – Iron Man 4 – Marvel Studios (?)
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2 – Warner Bros.
May 4, 2018 – The Amazing Spider-Man 4 - Sony
July 2018 – Hulk – Marvel Studios (?)
July 13, 2018 – X-Force – 20th Century Fox (?)
July 2018 – Batman – Warner Bros. (?)
November 2018 – Inhumans – Marvel Studios (?)
December 2018 – Aquaman – Warner Bros. (?)

Many of these are conjectural (?) dates.  That's a ton of movies for the comic book fan to absorb.  And this kind of schedule could dillute the box office numbers for some.

Or not.

Bottom line is that the DC Entertainment schedule should be taken with a grain of salt for now until we hear officially from Warner Bros..  But Finke is known for her sources and hasn't been off the mark in the past.  We'll see.  Eh, it's at least interesting to entertain the possibilities for now.

{ Nikki Finke; Comicbook; ComicBook. }

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