Warner Bros. Announces 10 DC Movies, 3 'Harry Potter' Spinoffs and 3 Lego Films
Warner Bros. is coming for Marvel's throne, in a HUGE way.
Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsuijihara announced plans for big-screen adaptations of 10 DC Entertainment properties which will be released between 2016 and 2020. And that's not all, as the studio will also add three Lego films and three Harry Potter spin-off movies, presumably the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy previously announced.
The 10 DC movies we can expect over the next six years are:
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice directed by Zack Snyder (2016) Suicide Squad directed by David Ayer (2016) Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot (2017) Justice League Part One directed by Snyder, with Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams reprising their roles (2017) The Flash starring Ezra Miller (2018) Aquaman starring Jason Momoa (2018) Shazam (2019) Justice League Part Two directed by Zack Snyder (2019) Cyborg starring Ray Fisher (2020) Green Lantern (2020)
In addition, a Warner Bros. press release promises "standalone Batman and Superman films" to accompany the ten movies that have been announced. As for the non-DC films, the three Harry Potter spinoff movies are expected to be released in 2016, 2018 and 2020, with J.K. Rowling making her screenwriting debut in the first movie, while veteran Harry Potter director David Yates returns. The Lego films have a similarly tiered plan, with Ninjago coming in 2016, followed by the previously-announced spinoff The Lego Batman Movie in 2017, and The Lego Movie 2 in 2018.
I've been pretty vocal about my belief that DC is making a mistake by kicking off its cinematic universe with a superhero team-up instead of building to it organically, the way Marvel did. Sci-fi author and comic book expert Matthew Kadish disagreed with me on this one, and he's not wrong either, since Marvel is a big threat and requires a big strategy to compete against. That said, my doubts are somewhat alleviated by how immaculately well-planned this all is. Whether that actually translates into good films, or even successful ones, is anyone's guess. But this is encouraging news for fans of superhero movies and other fantastic properties.
Credit: Warner Bros.