Just a week ago, 2022 looked like it was shaping up to be a standout year for DC movies. As of Friday evening, The Batman has made an impressive $288 million at the box office globally to go along with its 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans and critics alike love the movie, and there’s plenty more to come from DC in the months ahead. At least, there was, until Warner Bros. announced a bevy of delays for its DC movie slate this week.
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Warner Bros. confirms DC movie delays
A few days ago, there were at least three more live-action DC movies scheduled to release in 2022. The Flash, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Black Adam were all set to release in the second half of the year. Now, two of those movies have been pushed back to 2023.
As reported by Variety on Wednesday, Warner Bros. delayed Black Adam from July 29th, 2022 to October 21st, 2022. The animated feature DC League of Super-Pets, which was supposed to come out in May, will take Black Adam’s spot. Notably, Dwayne Johnson plays the title role in Black Adam and voices Krypto the Super-Dog in Super-Pets.
The studio also delayed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom from December 16th, 2022 to March 17th, 2023. The Flash, which has been is various stages of development since early 2018, has moved from November 4th, 2022 all the way to June 23rd, 2023.
But it’s not all bad news. There will still be two more live-action DC movies this year. Warner Bros. pushed Shazam! Fury of the Gods up from June 2nd, 2023 to December 12th, 2022. Just in time to compete with James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel.
“We’re thrilled to bring Shazam! Fury of the Gods to audiences as a Christmas gift this year,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution, in a statement earlier this week. “Families of all ages will really enjoy it.”
Additional Warner Bros. delays
Of course, the delays aren’t only affecting the upcoming DC movie releases.
Warner Bros. is also producing a Willy Wonka origin story starring Timothee Chalamet called Wonka. Yes, this is a thing that is happening. Paul King (Paddington) will direct, and Chalamet will be joined by Keegan Michael-Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, and Olivia Colman. But we’ll now have to wait until December 15th, 2023 to see it.
Finally, Warner Bros. also announced that its Jason Statham disaster movie sequel Meg 2: The Trench won’t hit theaters until August 4th, 2023.
According to Variety, the Aquaman and Flash delays can be blamed on “COVID-induced production delays with visual effects.” It’s unclear why the other movies are being delayed, but it leaves a few big holes in the summer movie release calendar.
