The Batman, The Flash, Shazam, and Black Adam all delayed in the Warner Bros. reshuffle
After ‘Dune‘ was bumped from its assigned December 18th slot to move to October 1st,2021, we were all expecting to hear that ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ had been moved back. It is a given that the DC film will be moving. What we didn’t expect was to hear that the entire DC slate would be moving back. We speculated that the Warner Bros. film ‘The Batman‘ MAY be moving either forward or back slightly due to ‘Dune‘ now occupying the upcoming Robert Pattinson starring superhero film. We could never, in our wildest imagination, believe that the film would move back by over five months. And yet, that is what has happened.
‘The Batman‘ has vacated its October 1st, 2021 slot and has now been pushed back to open on March 4th, 2022 instead. Ok, so it’s not as long a delay that was handed to ‘Dune‘ (that was TEN Months) but it is still a significant postponement for what looks and is expected to be one hell of a blockbuster film. After the trailer was screened at DC FanDome a few months back, it sent the fans and the internet crazy. Matt Reeves, the director of the film told the fans that the film was only around 25% completed and that there was still a lot of shooting to be done. Then Robert Pattinson became ill after contracting the coronavirus which led to a further shutdown of production before the all-clear was sounded and the film went full steam ahead. Now though, the film will have plenty of time to catch up on the schedule that COVID-19 disrupted.
Batman isn’t the only one to get a huge push back though. Filming is due to start on ‘Shazam! Fury Of The Gods‘ early in the new year and it was thought that the film may stand a chance of hitting screens next Christmas. Not anymore. The film, starring Zachary Levi will now not open until June 2nd, 2023. The DC film that WAS scheduled for release next Christmas, the Dwayne Johnson adaptation of ‘Black Adam‘ has now been removed from the release schedule entirely and is currently without a new release date. In its place, Warner Bros. has decided to move ‘The Matrix 4‘ into its place and will open the film on December 22nd, 2021.
And then, just to top things off, the long-awaited and delayed Andy Muschietti directed film of ‘The Flash‘, once again starring Ezra Miller and is being heralded as the start of the DC Multiverse has, you guessed it, been delayed again, this time by eight months and won’t open at multiplexes until June 3rd, 2022. The film, co-starring both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton as Batman, has been gestating for several years now and will (hopefully) eventually open in theatres. And of course, we are still awaiting the news regarding ‘Wonder Woman 1984‘ and its probable delay in 2021.
COVID-19 has decimated the cinematic year of 2020 and it seems its reach is now starting to extend into 2021 and beyond. The virus has caused so much disruption that studios are now making their moves and their plans early to attempt to avoid a situation like we have faced this year. While on the one hand, the delays that have been announced are extremely annoying and make us angry, on the other hand, at least we WILL be getting these films to entertain us somewhere down the line, it’s just that they will be a little bit later than we expected them or when we wanted them. By the time these films are ready for release and demand our attention, with god willing and just a little bit of luck, we will all be in a much healthier position and a world to sit back and enjoy them.
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Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!
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Source: Deadline
Author
Carl Roberts is the News Editor of The Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force frequently!
