There are still a few significant superhero movie releases scheduled to arrive shortly, even as Warner Bros. Discovery keeps delivering delays and cancellations for various projects across the DC Universe.
Shazam! and Aquaman both have sequels planned to their first solo motion pictures. Fury of the Gods is expected to end this year, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to make its premiere in March 2023. Things haven’t been simple for the entire DC trilogy, but the underwater sequel, in particular, has faced its share of issues related to Amber Heard’s civic court lawsuit.
Even though the studio works carefully to determine its strategy for the future of the DC Universe, fans are still in shock at the cancellation of Leslie Grace’s Batgirl. Though there haven’t been any very bad reports from the theatrical side in a while, this comes amid several cancellations and delays for more than a half-dozen other DC projects. That is until two of DC’s upcoming three films were suddenly postponed once again. Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have both been postponed from their initial release dates, according to Warner Bros. Discovery.
Jason Momoa’s second Aquaman film is scheduled to arrive on Christmas Day in 2023, while Zachary Levi’s Shazam! the sequel will now make its appearance on Aquaman 2’s previous date, March 17, 2023. There are no indications regarding a change in The Flash’s scheduled release date of June 23, 2023. One of the primary causes of the delay, according to Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, was WBD’s attempt to stretch out the expenses associated with marketing and distribution for its tent-pole films. According to reports, the studio only has enough money to fund the promotion and distribution of the blockbuster movies Black Adam and Don’t Worry Darling.
Deadline added to the story by saying that Aquaman 2 still needs additional post-production work before it’s ready to make its premiere. Additionally, this will allow Shazam! 2 to be released in IMAX theatres, which was previously a problem because Disney first released Avatar: Way of the Water in that format on the same day as Shazam! 2. For a studio that was aiming to have an excellent superhero movie universe by this point in time, this is developing into a completely catastrophic scenario, to put it bluntly. Now that just three DC films—The Batman, starring Matt Reeves, Black Adam, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson—have hit theatres, the DC Universe will be even more shrouded in mystery at its conclusion in 2022.
Shazam! 2 and Aquaman 2 have already seen many setbacks, with Momoa’s sequel’s director James Wan particularly saying that the crew required extra time to finish the VFX work. Fans are now questioning what the heck is going on with the studio behind these efforts, even though Wan now has an additional nine months to do that job and the movie won’t be out for another 16 months. Even with The Batman’s strong movie office performance this year, it appears that the Warner Bros. and Discovery combination has hurt both businesses’ bottom lines. While Todd Phillips’ Joker franchise and that universe appear to be secure for the time being, the studio is now in financial trouble. As a result, Shazam! 2 had to be delayed by three whole months.
The DC Universe’s future is now looking very gloomy with an astonishing number of issues still to be solved amid this changing of the guard for Warner Bros. Discovery. Shazam! The new release dates for Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are March 17, 2023, and December 25, 2023, respectively.