There’s been another spanner thrown into the works of the ever churning DC Comics movies rumor mill: a new report dispels pretty much every rumour currently circulating about the beleaguered cinematic universe.
Firstly, we can give up any hope of seeing the Joker and Harley Quinn movie (starring Jared Leto and Margot Robbie), or Leto’s solo Joker movie, anytime soon: both are said to have “fallen by the wayside”. Forget about a Gotham City Sirens and Birds of Prey crossover, too – this project is not in development.
In more clown-related news, Harley is also set not to feature in 2021’s The Suicide Squad (but fans of the Clown Princess of Crime can relax knowing she’ll be appearing in next year’s Birds of Prey). There’s also no link between Batgirl and Birds of Prey, despite rumours saying otherwise.
Next up: Batman. Whoever the latest actor to don the cape and cowl will be, we can safely assume they won’t be Robert Pattinson. The report states:
“The new rumours about Robert Pattinson are just fan rumors right now, nothing more.”
There’s still plenty of speculation on who the next Batman will be, but for now we’ll have to wait for 2021’s The Batman to start production. All we know for sure is that Ben Affleck is out.
Superman is also facing some uncertainty. Per the report:
“Superman has been shelved for now, as a temporary measure to let Supergirl step into the limelight and carry the Kryptonian banner for a little while on the big screen.”
We can also be fairly sure Henry Cavill won’t be returning as Superman in the near future:
“Contrary to recent rumors, [Cavill] is not on the verge of making another Superman picture and did not film a secret cameo for Shazam!”
The article also debunks the idea that a Superman project is “being actively shopped around”: according to the report, the man of steel is simply an option “on the table” for filmmakers to consider.
Finally, we’re given a fairly impressive list of projects that seem to be stalled: Deadshot, Nightwing, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, Lobo and Cyborg are all characters who are struggling to get (or return) to the big screen, while Justice League Dark similarly seems to be derailed.
Overall, there’s a lot of change on the horizon for the DCEU – only time will tell if this will be positive, or translate to box office numbers. A lot of these adjustments seem like good ideas: I can’t think of any drawbacks to quietly forgetting Leto’s Joker, or leaving some of the lesser known characters to one side for the moment as DC work on getting their iconic heroes established properly on the silver screen.
The next DC project to hit theatres is this April’s Shazam!, which may or may not feature a non-Cavill Superman cameo – keep your eyes peeled!