DC Studios Reveals Release Plan of Four Titles per Year

January 31, 2023, 11:35pm

In 2020, Walter Hamada announced an ambitious plan for DC Films: beginning in 2022, the studio would release “up to four” movies in theaters and another two on streaming. The then-president of DC Films told The New York Times that the more expensive films starring DC Comics’ marquee superheroes, including Batman and Superman, would go to theaters; “riskier,” less-expensive feature films like Batgirl and Static Shock would premiere exclusively on HBO Max. Hamada’s plans for the DC Extended Universe, as it was then known, would be bolstered by television series spinoffs on HBO Max.

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Those plans included four films to release theatrically throughout 2022: The Batman, Black Adam, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Ultimately, only two would make it into theaters — Batman in March, followed by Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam in October — with Flash and Aquaman 2 being pushed into 2023. Batgirl, and straight-to-streaming movies, would be scrapped entirely. Hamada would exit DC Films, rebranded and reorganized as DC Studios under Warner Bros. Discovery, with co-chairs James Gunn and Peter Safran named as Hamada’s replacements.

On Tuesday, Gunn and Safran revealed their plan for an interconnected and unified DC Universe, announcing a slate of the first 10 projects that will comprise the new DCU’s initial chapter.

Titled “Gods and Monsters,” the slate includes five films (Superman: Legacy, The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Swamp Thing) and five HBO Max television series (Creature Commandos, Waller, Booster Gold, Lanterns, and Paradise Lost). Marking the official start of the new DCU is the Gunn-scripted Superman: Legacy, penciled in for release in theaters on July 11th, 2025.

DC Release Schedule

Speaking to ComicBook and other outlets on Monday, Gunn and Safran revealed a considerably tighter release strategy of up to four titles total per year.

DC Studios plans to release “probably two movies and probably two HBO Max series per year,” Safran said. Superman: Legacy will be the first film under Gunn and Safran’s DC Studios, while on the TV side, HBO Max will premiere the animated series Creature Commandos and the live-action Peacemaker spinoff series Waller. (The two shows are connected, with voice actors from Creature Commandos reprising their roles in live-action elsewhere in the DCU.)

Both Superman: Legacy and filmmaker Matt Reeves’ The Batman — Part II, which is produced by DC Studios but exists outside of the DC Universe continuity under the Elseworlds banner, will release in 2025.

Asked if DC Studios would continue to release two films and two series per year in 2026, 2027, and beyond, Gunn said the plan is “something like that.” Added Safran, “In that range. In that range, for sure.”