Wonder Woman 1984 released on December 25th with a hybrid theatrical and HBO Max release, but it may not be the last DC film to debut on the streaming platform. In a recent The New York Times article, DC Films president Walter Hamada spoke about future plans for the franchise, revealing that they’d like to release more superhero films — ideally two per year — exclusively on HBO Max.
In the article, it’s outlined that DC Films has pretty big plans for the future of its superhero movie slate. For the most expensive DC movies, Hamada said that they are looking to release up to four a year in theaters beginning in 2022 while additional superhero films — specifically two per year — would go exclusively to HBO Max. Of the films that would head to the streaming service, the article explained that it would be “riskier” characters, such as Batgirl and Static Shock that would go to streaming as opposed to the big screen. All of this would be in addition to the development of additional television series for HBO Max as well.
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“With every movie that we’re looking at now, we are thinking, ‘What’s the potential Max spinoff?’” Hamada said.
It’s not clear if Batgirl and Static Shock are set in stone for HBO Max release — the article doesn’t directly quote Hamada in that regard. What we do know is that a Batgirl solo film has been in the works for a number of years, initially with Joss Whedon set to write and direct the project. He departed the project months later with Birds of Prey scribe Christina Hodson handling the Batgirl script since 2018. The Static Shock film was only recently announced to be in the works with Michael B. Jordan lined up to produce the project so there aren’t many details available on that film as of yet.
Ultimately, it will be interesting to see what films end up being released directly to HBO Max. The entire movie-watching landscape has shifted dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic — that’s what led to Wonder Woman 1984‘s hybrid release after all — so it’s not much of a stretch to consider that there is absolutely an audience for superhero films directly to streaming. But it will also be interesting to see how things shift as situations change and as HBO Max continues to grow.
What do you think? Are you interested in some DC movies debuting exclusively to HBO Max? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
