Holy DCEU update, Batman! Yes, as the headline suggests, there’s some pretty major updates on several of Warners Brothers’ upcoming DC projects.
With Heat Vision having recently delved in to the DC Extended Universe, we now have some new details on a whole host of your favourite DC heroes and villains. So, let’s get to it.
It was only this very week that we again heard stories of director Matt Reeves looking to replace Ben Affleck in the cape ‘n’ cowl for The Batman, and now we’re hearing that Reeves’ freshly-handed-in screenplay does indeed have the film showcasing a younger Caped Crusader. Given how Affleck’s Dark Knight is a grizzled, beaten-down hero with decades of protecting Gotham City under his belt, that seems to again point in the direction of Affleck handing over the Batsuit to A.N. Other.
From the World’s Greatest Detective, to his longtime nemesis. While Jared Leto’s Joker is still at play in the DCEU, elsewhere we now know that Joaquin Phoenix will be playing the Clown Prince of Crime in Todd Phillips’ other Joker movie that takes place outside of the DCEU. For that picture, we’re hearing that a $55 million budget is the current plan; making it far, far smaller than your average comic book movie in that regard. The film will be part of a new banner of DC Comics-driven movies from Warners, with DC Dark and DC Black just two such titles mooted for this banner. These films will have a more adult-orientated skew to them, so we can expect something in line with Logan, Deadpool, or Punisher: War Zone in terms of language and violence.
Arguably the most key DC-based movie on the horizon right now is the solo outing for Ezra Miller’s Flash. Previously, we’d seen how the Scarlet Speedster’s solo effort was to be titled Flashpoint, but that’s now been changed up once more. Seemingly back to being titled simply The Flash, the film will still pull its inspiration from Geoff Johns’ iconic Flashpoint comic book arc, though. That comic arc saw Barry Allen travel back in time to save his mother, which in turn caused all kinds of changes to the present-day timeline; Bruce Wayne died that night in Crime Alley; Thomas Wayne became an alcoholic, aggressive Batman; Martha Wayne became the Joker; Oliver Queen was an arms dealer in the same vein as certain incarnations of Tony Stark; Captain Cold was the protector of Central City; Wonder Woman’s Amazons and Aquaman’s Atlanteans were at brutal, bloody war; Kal-El was found by the government upon crash-landing on Earth, thus spending his entire life locked up and used as a test subject; and Cyborg was the planet’s leading hero. And let’s face it, you know the shit’s hit the fan when Cyborg is your brightest shining hope! The endgame of Flashpoint, however, saw Barry create a brand new timeline that became known as The New 52. That was basically DC Comics’ way of refreshing their comic book titles and making some significant changes to certain characters. Point being, if Warner Brothers wanted to make some major changes to their DC Extended Universe – such as a new direction for Batman – then the upcoming Flash movie is the perfect excuse to do just that. At this point, The Flash is being described as a time-travelling comedy of sorts that will have a Back to the Future vibe to it. The plan is to start shooting the film early next year, with Game Night’s John Francis Day and Jonathan Goldstein directing.
Up next for the DCEU, of course, is James Wan’s Aquaman, which swims to the silver screen this December.
