What are Warner Bros. Plans for Superman and Batman Films?

October 16, 2018 Movie News 24

A Variety article about the production start of “The Flash” movie being pushed back is getting a lot of interest today, because of one line in the piece mentioning Superman and Batman.

After discussing the issues with “The Flash” movie and why it is being delayed, the writers state: “The studio is not currently moving forward with Batman and Superman movies featuring Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill, respectively.”

Do the writers of this article at Variety have new information? Or are they just regurgitating the same rumors and speculation we already dealt with late last month?

We know that Warner Bros. “is not currently moving forward” with a Superman movie… which, as we’ve discussed previously, probably puts Henry Cavill out of the picture depending on how many years pass before they do look at making another Superman movie.

So, there’s really nothing new here… We just have to be patient and hope something happens, sooner rather than later.

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afriend
afriend
October 16, 2018 4:57 pm

Warner Bros does not understand this word “plan”. I question if they ever did, but they definitely do not now…

sundevil82
sundevil82
October 16, 2018 6:09 pm

WB/Dc is not just hurting their own brand of characters with their lack of vision or plans, but they’re hurting comic book movies in general. They have yet to attack the problem at the source which is writing, directing and studio interference. They’re muddying the waters and making the claims of ‘superhero fatigue’ come to fruition by releasing these sub par visions and half baked ideas. They’re regressing back to the 90s style of comic book movies with shift of focus going from making a quality self contained story to trying make money off of the marketing. Maybe someone should… Read more »

Superman2878
Superman2878
October 16, 2018 10:37 pm
Reply to  sundevil82

Batman and Robin……………………….
Why George Clooney? Why?

Nate1986
Nate1986
October 16, 2018 7:24 pm

The problem is WB and hardcore Fanboys themselves.

WB for touching 3 out of the 5 movies that hurt them (BvS, SS, and JL)

And fanboys who argued over the anything that made them toxic.

God damn it, MAKE A SUPERMAN MOVIE! I’LL WRITE IT IF YOU WANT!

Steve, is there anything you know?

sundevil82
sundevil82
October 16, 2018 9:43 pm
Reply to  Nate1986

It was amateur hour with their decision making post man of steel. If they had a problem with the first entry then the logical thing to do is replace the writer and director instead of shoehorning in a more popular character. What they didn’t realize is that you still have to make a good movie. As far as suicide squad is concerned, Letting a trailer company cut your other movie is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I still can’t believe they did that. And finally instead of halting production on justice league, replacing the director before the movie started… Read more »

supergepetto
supergepetto
October 17, 2018 2:11 am
Reply to  Nate1986

If the movies’ budgets were not inflated by the director and producers lining their pockets, those films would have netted healthy profits.

Clark_Jo
Clark_Jo
October 20, 2018 11:16 am
Reply to  Nate1986

Wut?

supergepetto
supergepetto
October 17, 2018 2:07 am

Warner Brothers is inept company that has no clue when it comes to making successful super hero films, since they always have such high budgets where most of of the money goes into the directors’ and producers’ pockets before filming even begins. Then when the movies have decent grosses, the profit margins are small. Do those dimwits think that a “Birds of Prey” film (already a flop tv show in the past) and a “Supergirl” movie (currently a mediocre show that only garnered 1.5 million viewers and a pathetic .5 rating in its Season 4 premiere) would be more successful… Read more »

Superman2878
Superman2878
October 17, 2018 11:08 am
Reply to  supergepetto

I remember there being a Birds of prey tv series back in the early 2000’s. It only lasted one season, so what makes them think that a movie would work now if a series flopped before?

redcape
redcape
October 17, 2018 11:56 am
Reply to  Superman2878

I remember when that came out. But at that time there wasn’t a lot of anything superhero wise. I watched the whole series and besides the last one that at leased attempted to wrap up what they tried to accomplish, I liked it!

Superman2878
Superman2878
October 17, 2018 3:11 pm
Reply to  redcape

I enjoyed the series birds of prey as well redcape. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t received well enough to continue on for a few years to have a proper conclusion for the series.

Lana2k5
Lana2k5
October 17, 2018 1:05 pm
Reply to  supergepetto

To be fair, The CW is not available in every major market, unlike ABC, NBC, or CBS, so naturally, with the smaller representation comes lower viewership numbers. Yet Sunday’s season premiere had almost identical ratings to the Season 3 premiere (0.5 share/1.5 million viewers).

Not to mention it was going up against the Patriots-Chiefs game on NBC. And Patriots games on Sunday or Monday nights will always draw big viewing numbers.

redcape
redcape
October 17, 2018 1:21 pm

Let’s discuss for a moment how we got here. Back in 2004 when the word came out they green lit a Superman movie and it was in active production, we were all doing cart wheels. Finally after all the time that went by we were on our way to a new Superman movie!! 2006,…. out comes Superman Returns!! It was both praised and torn up. Critic didn’t hate it. Fans for the he most part liked it, BUT…..things changed after it was out for a time and then came the hard core analytical appraisals. The director, BrianS, had been deemed… Read more »

Seph1r0th
Seph1r0th
October 17, 2018 1:49 pm

Benching the two characters that have anchored the DC universe for 80 years is about as stupid as it gets. I understand the desire to focus on bringing other characters to the big screen, but Batman and Superman will always be DC’s bread and butter and without them they’ll never come close to bringing in the general audience like Marvel has been able to do. Remember that MoS and BvS were both trashed by critics before AND after release yet they still grossed $660M and $870M respectively. Compare that to Iron Man’s first outing ($585M) and Captain America’s debut ($370M),… Read more »

Kal L
Kal L
October 18, 2018 4:02 am

Most likely FAKE NEWS… I’ve read this same quote all over, meaning that there is really just “cut and paste” journalism happening. They have been stating that Ben Affleck is quitting being Batman for a couple years now, and all we have seen is, that Ben has gotten into really good shape whilst in rehab. Similar with the whole Henry Cavill quitting Superman nonsense… Which was debunked that very same day by Dani Garcia (his manager), WB and Cavill himself. All I can see is that the haters are really trying to bury the DCEU with rumors and badmouthing. I… Read more »

redcape
redcape
October 18, 2018 12:50 pm
Reply to  Kal L

I don’t know. Remember a few short months ago there was almost daily articles on ZS cut of the JL. And info from Zack himself! NOW….nothing. Just dropped off and not a peep. And that coincided with the comic cons where there wasn’t one single tiny bit of info related to Superman. We’ve been treated to absolute silence from the WB. So do we interpret this as in the old saying, “if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say it”. Meaning they(WB), have NO good news regarding the continuation of Superman?

lurker
lurker
October 19, 2018 12:28 am

Odd that the article ignores the recent reshuffling of leadership at DC and the move of DC into a licensing unit rather than stand-alone or in the film dept. One assumes that the new management would want to take a look around the place and not just continue on the same path as their predecessors.

I don’t envy anyone the job of sorting through the current slate of projects.

NeoRanger
NeoRanger
October 19, 2018 8:33 am

Well, yeah, they’re stupid, but they have rationalized this. Superman and Batman are big properties that should be hitting the 1 billion mark for WB (according to them). When this doesn’t work, they consider the films a failure. These movies are extremely expensive and WB will absolutely throw money at them. These two are properties that they need to be safe. So, from their perspective, they’d rather spend less money on more obscure properties, where they film-makers can experiment and if something goes wrong, the brand damage is small. I mean, I hope Shazam does insanely well, but if it… Read more »

lcmcbain
lcmcbain
October 19, 2018 11:53 am

I think part of the problem in general with announcing any future plans is that the Merger with AT&T was appealed by the DOJ and the hearing is Dec 6th. I imagine that this has put a lot of plans in limbo for the moment. (Not that they had any good plans before, ha) If the merger is once again affirmed, things will pick up pace most likely. If it get denied, there might be further appeals to higher courts and more limbo/chaos ensues.

Superman2878
Superman2878
October 19, 2018 10:04 pm

Happy Friday to all! And to all a thumbs up!

Clark_Jo
Clark_Jo
October 20, 2018 11:10 am

Their plan is to make money. To the individuals in charge of a movie corporation that’s what it’s about. Just to put it bluntly, they don’t care about your or my fandom. Well I guess in a sense they do because that fandom is what creates dollars for them, but I mean they don’t care if you want to see a character in a movie or not. If WB can make money making DC Films without a Superman in any of them, they will. I’m not expecting Aquaman to make a lot of money, nor do I expect Shazam to… Read more »

redcape
redcape
October 20, 2018 12:50 pm
Reply to  Clark_Jo

There’s another sad point to this as well. And that’s Henry’s role as Superman. Because he’s been in three movies and the flack that’s been unfairly heaped on all three, it’s possible that the heads at the WB have concluded his time is over and done. They may consider that bringing him back as Superman will be a negative just for the fact he was attached to the three and what the end results have been. As I alluded to in my above statement they did the same thing with BrandonR. Only with him it was one and done. Never… Read more »

johnpinna
johnpinna
October 20, 2018 4:39 pm

I think it depends on a few things. First and foremost, if Aquaman (followed by Shazam) performs real well – then larger budget pictures might be viable. If not, the new lower budget strategy might prevail which would mean no Superman/Batman.

This is why the Henry Cavill $$$$ was such an issue..

redcape
redcape
October 21, 2018 1:49 pm
Reply to  johnpinna

I think they’re both going to do well. Are they going to set some kind of record? Not likely. But these billion dollar expectations are unrealistic. Wonder Woman may get close but their all going to taper off at some point. They cost too much to make and if there going to keep going they’ve got to real in the cost of making them. A tall order to be sure.