Looks like DC have blinked first in their game of chicken against Marvel. As expected, to be honest, Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice has had its release date brought back from May 6, 2016 to March 25 of the same year, in order to stop in clashing with the third Captain America film. It'll now go head-to-head with Brett Ratner's Beverly Hill Cops reboot/sequel/remake/whatever, which we're pretty sure the combined might of the World's Finest superheroes can deal with. Taking another leaf out of Marvel's book, Warner Bros have also gone and announced the release dates for nine DC superhero movies, running all the way up until 2020. Which is ambitious, considering Batman V Superman will only be the second entry in the "shared universe" they're looking to build up to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course they've not actually said what any of these films will be, but the release schedule is as follows: August 5, 2016 June 23, 2017 November 17, 2017 March 23, 2018 July 27, 2018 April 5, 2019 June 14, 2019 April 3, 2020 June 19, 2020 They've also revealed a schedule for "event" films (not necessarily DC Comics related, although lord knows what they are otherwise) for November 16, 2018 and November 20, 2020. So that means there's gonna be two DC superhero films released a year from 2016, and also means that - with the combined releases of Marvel's own films and the properties still owned by Fox (X-Men, Fantastic Four) and Sony (Spider-Man) - in 2016 we'll be seeing six Marvel and DC movies in that first year, up to nine in 2017 and at least seven in 2018. That's either a fanboy's ultimate nirvana, or the first sign of that oft-warned superhero movie fatigue... Anyway, that doom and gloom aside for now, it's time to start making wild speculations! We think another Superman film, a new Batman and (fingers crossed) a solo Wonder Woman film will fit somewhere into that schedule, but the other six of DC's upcoming films are a complete mystery. They're gonna be building to a Justice League movie, right? Is Guillermo del Toro's supernatural Justice League Dark still on the cards, too? When is Krypto The Superdog gonna get his chance to dazzle on the silver screen?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
