Every Upcoming Movie After Zack Snyder's Justice League In The Same Universe
When it comes to box office domination, Marvel got to the punch well before its longtime publishing and entertainment rival DC Comics. In 2019, Endgame, the fourth and final Avengers movie, arrived in theaters, a culmination of roughly a decade and about two dozen films worth of world-building. That blockbuster featured most every major Marvel hero, and its incredible success tells you everything you need to know about why DC spent years attempting to create its own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its DC Extended Universe began in earnest in 2013, with Zack Snyder's Superman-based Man of Steel, and included Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. It was all supposed to peak with the ultimate superhero squad movie, 2017's Justice League.
Snyder had to abandon the project due to a personal tragedy, and Warner Bros. put MCU veteran Joss Whedon on the project. His Justice League didn't thrill fans, who insisted that some fabled "Snyder" cut existed somewhere. It didn't, but HBO Max gave the filmmaker $70 million to produce the Justice League he'd intended to make, and the result is an epic four-hour film. Zack Snyder's Justice League also helps lay the groundwork for future DC Comics-based films. While many DC films based on familiar properties are in production, here's a look at the ones that still have ties to the world Snyder helped create.
Wonder Woman 3
Mere days before the release of Wonder Woman 1984 in December 2020, Warner Bros. announced (via Variety) the not-at-all surprising news that a third movie in the blockbuster franchise starring Gal Gadot was officially in development. Patty Jenkins, director and co-writer of the first two films, would also return to finish out the trilogy of hugely popular DCEU entries. As of spring 2021, plot details are scarce. Jenkins implied to Den of Geek that Barbara, a.k.a. Cheetah, the secondary villain of Wonder Woman 1984 portrayed by Kristen Wiig, could return. That movie ends with Barbara still alive but not in her Cheetah permutation. "I have my reasons for making it ambiguous," Jenkins said. "But the truth is there may or may not be more to come."
Even more vague than the plot of the next Wonder Woman film is its release date. It likely won't make its way to theaters for quite some time. While producer Warner Bros. "fast-tracked" Wonder Woman 3, the previous two movies put Gadot and Jenkins in such high demand that they'll be busy for years before they can get back to the series that made them super-famous. They're collaborating on a Cleopatra movie, for starters, and Jenkins is directing the 2023 Star Wars spinoff Rogue Squadron.
The Amazons
The backstory of the Wonder Woman character is steeped in mythology, leaning heavily on Greek legends and history. The Lasso of Truth-wielding superhero is really named Diana, and she's the daughter of Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, an all-female warrior race who live in a utopian society on the island of Themyscira. Viewers get a few glimpses into the lives and culture of the Amazons in moments used to set up the stories of Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, but according to those films' director, Patty Jenkins, a movie about Wonder Woman's people will eventually come to theaters, and it's vitally important to the franchise. "There's an arc that I have in mind for the first movie, and then the second movie, and then the Amazon movie, and then the third movie," Jenkins told Total Film. She and former DC Entertainment president (and Wonder Woman 1984 co-writer) Geoff Johns knocked out a story for the Amazons movie and sold the idea to movie studio brass, adding that she'll produce the movie but probably will not direct it.
Aquaman 2
In 2019, the DCEU moved beyond the popular and ultra-familiar superhero tier of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with Aquaman, an origin story and eye-popping, primarily underwater adventure featuring the half-human, half-man-from-Atlantis who has dominion over the sea. In February 2019, shortly after Aquaman crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, Warner Bros. officially scheduled Aquaman 2 for a December 16, 2022 release, according to Deadline. Aquaman co-writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick will pen the second movie's script solo, while Aquaman director James Wan will return to helm the sequel. At the 2020 DC FanDome (via Deadline) he teased a few details about it. "I think the second one is a little bit more serious, a little bit more relevant in the world we are living today" hinted Wan. "I think that's where it wants to go." The main cast will all be back, too, including Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera, and Patrick Wilson as Orm Marius.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
The 2019 superhero comedy Shazam! is the tonal opposite of Justice League — all silliness and brightness as opposed to darkness and brooding. But the films do exist in the same universe. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Henry Cavill was at one point supposed to cameo in Shazam!, which is loaded with references to other Justice League heroes, such as the presence of a copy of The Daily Planet bearing the headline "Superman Is Back" — implying the film is set after Justice League.
Shazam! tells the story of teenage foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who inherits from a wizard the power to turn into a grown-up superhero (Zachary Levi) simply by calling out "Shazam!" Despite its differences from the rest of the DCEU and not having the same name recognition as Superman, Batman, or Aquaman, Shazam! was a hit, earning $365 million at the box office. That can mean only one thing: a sequel. Two weeks after the release of Shazam!, TheWrap reported that the original film's director and writer (David F. Sandberg and Henry Gayden, respectively), had been hired for another installment. At 2020 DC FanDome, members of the production announced the film's subtitle, Fury of the Gods, but didn't reveal much else.
A previously announced release date of April 1, 2022 was pushed to November 4, 2022 due to coronavirus-related production and theatrical lockdowns, and was later moved again to June 2, 2023.
Black Adam
As Shazam! relates to Justice League, then any movie connected to Shazam! also figures into the Justice League mythology going forward — particularly Black Adam. As Batman has the Joker and Superman has Lex Luthor, Shazam has Black Adam — his super-powered, morally ambiguous, and tough to stop arch-nemesis. Black Adam is also something of an ancient anti-hero, a wry and likable character, and playing him will be one of the most likable and bankable stars in Hollywood: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Neither Warner Bros. nor DC has let out many details about the plot, although a Black Adam cast list includes such notable actors playing old comics favorites like Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone.
Filming on Black Adam was set to begin in the summer of 2020 with a release date of December 22, 2021, but both were delayed due to coronavirus concerns. Johnson will go before the cameras as Black Adam in April 2021, meaning the film won't be ready for the public until 2022 at the earliest.
The Suicide Squad
Centering on villains and criminals that had at some point in time terrorized Gotham City or squared off against Batman, Suicide Squad was a darkly comic and nihilistic offshoot of the Justice League universe. (Jared Leto's Joker figures prominently in Suicide Squad, and he makes a brief appearance in the Snyder cut of Justice League, too.) Written and directed by David Ayer, critics hated the 2016 bad guy extravaganza, but it also won an Oscar for makeup and hairstyling, made $746.8 million at the box office, and led to two semi-sequels: Birds of Prey, about Suicide Squad member Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and the forthcoming The Suicide Squad.
The slightly-differently named film, written and directed by Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind James Gunn, will once again find the motley crew of wicked malcontents together to counterintuitively save the day, in this case a Latin American island called Corto Maltese. "There they have to destroy a Nazi-era prison and laboratory named Jotunheim, where political prisoners were held and experimentations took place," producer Peter Safran told Empire (via Digital Spy). The cast of The Suicide Squad will including returning actors like Robbie, Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag), and Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), with Idris Elba and John Cena joining up as Bloodsport and Peacemaker, respectively. The sequel is scheduled for an August 6, 2021 release.
The Flash
The Flash, a TV series about the impossibly fast Justice League superhero, has aired on the CW since 2014, starring Grant Gustin as the quickest man on Earth (also known as Barry Allen). Warner Bros. will soon put another Flash project into play, a feature film unconnected to the television show and starring the actor who played the speedy superhuman throughout the DCEU, including the Snyder cut of Justice League.
Ezra Miller will reprise his roles as Barry Allen and the Flash in The Flash, scheduled for a theatrical release on November 4, 2022. According to Den of Geek, the film is an adaptation of the 2011 Flash comic Flashpoint, in which the Flash travels to the past to stop the murder of his mother and wreaks havoc on time, creating multiple timelines. That will allow for multiple Batmen — and Michael Keaton of the 1989 Batman and Ben Affleck of the current DCEU have both reportedly signed on to portray an incarnation of the Caped Crusader. In February 2021, Deadline reported that The Young and the Restless star Sasha Calle had joined the cast of The Flash as a significant character: Supergirl, Superman's cousin. Time will tell if Calle will star in a Supergirl standalone film.