Warner Bros is having a big investor confab today and all kinds of news is being dropped, intended to shore things up after Rupert Murdoch’s attempted takeover., This morning we heard that HBO will offer its own streaming service, effectively ,leaving cable behind, and we’ve been sitting here and waiting for the movie newws and here it is: Batman v Superman will be followed by Suicide Squad in 2o16, Wonder Woman and Justice League in 2017, and The Flash and Aquaman in 2018 and Shazam and Justive League 2 in 2019. Plans are also afoot for a Cyborg movie, a green Lantern reboot, and more Batman and Superman.
MORE TO COME, as they say, holy frackety frack, more to come.
More of the official word:
.@WarnerBrosEnt plans to release at least 10 @DCComics -based films beginning in 2016, not counting stand-alone Batman and Superman films.
— Time Warner (@twxcorp) October 15, 2014
Via SlashFilm and Ben Fritz.
AAAAND via Graeme McMillan we have Jason Momoa as AQUAMAN! And Ezra Miller as THE FLASH! And Ray Fisher as CYBORG!
- 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)
If they didn’t over saturate Hollywood with superheros before now, then they just did. I think it’s a little premature for them to have these grandiose plans before any of these things have hit big. Man of Steel was widely panned (no clue if it made big box office). We’ll see.
I’m actually more shocked at the HBO news. That’s crazy, but not surprising. One more reason to ditch cable.
Black super hero on the big screen!
Good! I just hope the superhero movie bubble hasn’t burst by then. Glad to see more faith in Wonder Woman.
“If they didn’t over saturate Hollywood with superheros before now, then they just did”
Doesn’t Marvel have a release slate fairly similar to this, announced a while ago.
Brian, I would argue your point of Man Of Steel being widely panned. At worst, reviews of it were mixed down the middle. It’s worldwide gross was $668 million, which was almost twice Superman Returns and more than the first Thor, Iron Man and Captain America movies. As such, I’m sure they consider it a success.
Between the two universes, Disney/Marvel and Warner/DC, that’s 4 super-hero movies a year. How is that an over-saturation?
Are 4 romantic comedies a year an over-saturation? 4 horror movies? 4 sci-fi movies? 4 quirky character-driven dramas?
Super-heroes are just one more genre. Complaining about there being too many is stupid. If you don’t like the genre, there are plenty of other movies to see.
” If you don’t like the genre, there are plenty of other movies to see.”
How long is that going to be the case, big studios are going to go where the money goes. People are already trying to emulate the MCU/DC franchise format on TV, streaming and the big screen.
I would argue ‘comicbook’ is not really a genre. Winter Soldier differed greatly from GOTG, for example. It’s only over-saturation if they’re all the same.
@BrianJacoby, Don’t forget the Fox stable of X-Men, Spider-Man (and associated spin-offs) plus possibly more Fantastic Four. That means a potential five or SIX super-hero movies a year. That’s possible oversaturation.
Does a super hero movie stop being a super hero movie if it’s got comedy elements or a vague “political intrigue” throughline? They’re all ultimately action movies, all based on comics and not different enough from each other that you could call GOTG a “comedy” or “heist movie” or Winter Soldier a “political thriller”.
How long is that going to be the case
Forever. There is a 0% probability that all action movies are going to be replaced by superhero movies and a 0% probability that all movies are going to be replaced by superhero movies.
I think it’s far more likely that some bad superhero movies will come out, flop, and studios will decide that people are sick of watching superhero movies and move onto something else for a while. But for right now superhero movies hit that sweet spot for material for an action movie with a lot of special effects.
(Now if you’re a fan of action movies with lots of FX that aren’t part of an effort to “build a franchise” you may be screwed for a while. But that isn’t because of superhero movies, it’s because studios are more concerned with trying to find ways to build franchises instead of making good action movies these days.)
the original press release also shows 3 movies based on another JK Rowling series of books and 3 more Lego movies.
Superhero movies are good for the long game, long on merch, bluray, reshowings, etc. Even if there’s a bomb or two in there (F4 alert!), I dont think superheroes will be thrown by the wayside anytime soon. It make a generation or so for something else to come along. ‘Action’ movies have really come down in our public conciousness as the stars of those have aged, so these have largelly replaced them.
Here’s the updated scorecard:
(Major geek films and animation have been included.)
(Also: Until names are linked to dates, you’ll see duplication of the DCE/Warners listings.)
5/1/2015 The Avengers: Age of Ultron Marvel
6/19/2015 Inside Out Pixar
7/17/2015 Ant-Man Marvel
8/7/2015 The Fantastic Four Fox
11/6/2015 Untitled Peanuts Movie Fox
11/25/2015 The Good Dinosaur Pixar
Unknown 2016 Suicide Squad DCE
Unknown 2016 Untitled Lego Movie Warners
2/12/2016 Deadpool Fox
3/4/2016 Untitled Disney Animation Disney
3/25/2016 Batman v Superman DCE
5/6/2016 Captain America 3 Marvel
5/27/2016 X-Men: Apocalypse Fox
6/3/2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Paramount
6/17/2016 Finding Dory Pixar
7/8/2016 Doctor Strange Marvel
8/5/2016 Untitled DC DCE
8/5/2016 Untitled Smurfs Movie Sony
9/23/2016 Ninjago Warners
11/11/2016 Sinister Six Sony
11/18/2016 HP: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Warners
11/23/2016 Untitled Disney Animation Disney
12/16/2016 Untitled Star Wars Disney
Unknown 2017 Wonder Woman DCE
Unknown 2017 Justice League, Part One DCE
Unknown 2017 Lego Batman Warners
1/13/2017 Captain Underpants Dreamworks
2/10/2017 Untitled Warner Animation Group Project Warners
3/3/2017 Untitled Wolverine Fox
5/5/2017 Untitled Marvel Marvel
5/26/2017 Untitled LEGO Movie Warners
6/16/2017 Untitled Pixar Animation Pixar
6/23/2017 Untitled DC DCE
7/7/2017 Pirates Of The Caribbean 5 Disney
7/14/2017 The Fantastic Four 2 Fox
7/28/2017 Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Marvel
11/3/2017 Untitled Marvel Marvel
11/17/2017 Untitled DC DCE
11/22/2017 Untitled Pixar Animation Pixar
Unknown 2018 Flash DCE
Unknown 2018 Aquaman DCE
Unknown 2018 Lego Movie 2 Warners
Unknown 2018 HP: Fantastic Beasts Warners
Unknown 2018 The Amazing Spider-Man 3 Sony
2/9/2018 Untitled Warner Animation Group Project Warners
3/9/2018 Untitled Disney Animation Disney
3/23/2018 Untitled DC DCE
5/4/2018 Untitled Marvel Marvel
5/25/2018 Untitled Lego Warners
6/15/2018 Untitled Pixar Animation Pixar
7/6/2018 Untitled Marvel Marvel
7/13/2018 Untitled Fox Fox / Marvel
7/27/2018 Untitled DC DCE
11/2/2018 Untitled Marvel Marvel
11/16/2018 Untitled WB Event Film Warners
11/21/2018 Untitled Disney Animation Disney
Unknown 2019 Shazam DCE
Unknown 2019 Justice League Part Two DCE
4/5/2019 Untitled DC DCE
5/3/2019 Untitled Marvel Marvel
5/24/2019 Untitled Lego Warners
6/14/2019 Untitled DC DCE
Unknown 2020 Cyborg DCE
Unknown 2020 Green Lantern DCE
Unknown 2020 HP: Fantastic Beasts Warners
4/3/2020 Untitled DC DCE
6/19/2020 Untitled DC DCE
11/20/2020 Untitled WB Event Film Warners
I am starting to remember with fond nostalgia the days when you could see every movie/tv show based on a comic. That is a deluge of Superhero movies.
In the 60’s there were a TON of Westerns – almost one a week. (Both in theatres and on TV.) Yes, that trend did eventually play out, but it shows that this sort of potential “oversaturation” is not unprecedented. If it means we get a bunch of good films, I’m OK with it.
Maybe I’m biased towards The House Of Ideas, but I have more confidence in the Marvel Studios slate than I do in the WB one. I’m sure Bats v. Supes will be a colossal hit due to the novelty of FINALLY seeing those two share the big screen. But an Aquaman film? I’m not sure about that – guess we’ll see!
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