Thursday, January 31, 2019

DCEU - Big Changes Announced

Following the success of Aquaman clocking in over 1 billion worldwide last week, the future of the DCEU and general movie universe seems to be on the up. Here's what we can expect in the next three years.


Shazam: Due out on April 5th, we've already had a trailer and several set pics and some behind the scenes photos for this entertaining romp starring Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Billy Batson/Shazam respectively, going up against Mark Strong's Dr Sivana. Recent spoilers have indicted that as well as meeting the Shazam family, we'll also be seeing the Deadly Sins in this movie, which even director David F. Sandberg has alluded to being as a superhero version of Big.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJCbtNZ18O8


Joker: Due out on October 4th, this film has finished filming and over the last few months, not only did we get a brief glimpse of Joaquin Phoenix transform from struggling comedian Arthur Fleck to the Clown Prince of Crime himself but the cast has also filled out too. Joining Phoenix in this film are Frances Conroy, Robert DeNiro, Zazie Beeetz and Marc Maron to name a few. Brett Cullen will be playing a more antagonistic version of Thomas Wayne while Dante Pereira-Olson and Douglas Hodge will be playing Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth respectively.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x0mwDykMfI


Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn):  Yep, it's one long title and this month, it finally began filming with a February 7th 2020 release date confirmed. The movie will see Margot Robbie reprise her role as Harley Quinn, now free from the Joker and allying herself with Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett Bell) and Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in order to protect Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) from Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) and serial killer, Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Rosie Perez also stars as an older Renee Montoya and a brief trailer was released this week to give people a sense of what Cathy Yan's movie will be like tonally. There's also rumours that we might be getting a trilogy here, which will also bring in Gotham City Sirens to the table as well.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQTDDbti1Y


Wonder Woman 1984: The sequel to the much loved 2017 film has been pushed back to June 5th 2020 and while that's a bit of a bummer, it does give them more time to touch up some of the special effects they'll need for Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) no doubt. The movie will see Gal Gadot and Chris Pine reprise their roles as Diana Prince and Steve Trevor respectively in an 80's setting while Pedro Pascal, Natasha Rothwell, Ravi Patel, Gabriella Wilde, Kristoffer Polaha, and child actress Oakley Bull have been cast in undisclosed roles. Fans of Hippolyta (Connie Nielson) and Antiope (Robin Wright) should be delighted that both characters are back for this movie while director Patty Jenkins is already hinting at doing a third movie set in the present day.


The Batman: After months of silence, WB and DC set social media trending last night but not only finally confirming that Ben Affleck will no longer be playing the Caped Crusader but that Matt Reeves movie will have a June 25th 2021 release date and that his movie will be  detective story that will feature various members of Batman's Rogues Gallery to boot. I liked Affleck in the role but having a new Batman is the right move here and Reeves movie will clearly be a further break from the Snyder era of the DCEU, which isn't strictly a bad thing either. Also going by a recent interview, I get the impression that Matt's movie will be influenced by the likes of The Long Halloween and Hush, albeit an original story though. Really cannot wait for this movie. There will be another blog next week on characters I'd like to see appear in this one, some of whom are overdue a big screen outing.


The Suicide Squad: A couple of months, it was more or less confirmed that former Guardians Of The Galaxy director, James Gunn would be taking over for the sequel of David Ayer's divisive 2016 hit. Now, it's confirmed that Gunn will not only helm the movie, which is being touted as reboot with mostly a new cast but that the movie will also be released August 6th 2021. Personally I'm iffy on this one but I am hoping that Gunn at least keeps both Deadshot (Will Smith) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). As for whether or not Margot Robbie will reprise her role as Harley Quinn, that seems to be up in the air for now.


Batman Beyond: This month, the popular spin-off from Batman: The Animated Series celebrated it's 20th anniversary and with Terry's adventures continuing in the current Rebirth comics, it seems that an animated movie (with an Asian-American voice actor in mind, casting wise) is being touted for 2022 while DC's Super Pets will be released in May 21st 2021 as well. Out of the two, another adventure for Terry is the more appealing but it's nice to see that following the surprise success of Aquaman that DC are finally pulling out the stops again. We're still a bit away from getting anything concrete on New Gods or The Flash movies but I'm sure we'll know in due course what's going on with them.

More Information: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/01/30/dc-films-new-batman-and-suicide-squad-movies-get-release-dates/#ebe4e6535921

So what do you think, DC fans? Pretty exciting stuff ahead, am I right?

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