RUMOR: Warner Bros. to Unveil Seven Film Wave of DC Universe Movies at SDCC

Tabloid titan claims to have blown the lid off Warner Bros. top-secret superhero mega-plans

Nikki Finke used to be the notorious queen of Hollywood industry gossip as the boss of Deadline.com, but was ousted from (most) of her power over the site in a 2013 power-struggle. Now she’s returned with a highly-touted gossip site all her own, NikkiFinke.com, and in an sign of the times the first major story she’s claiming isn’t a celebrity divorce or high-profiling firing – it’s Warner Bros. alleged three-year plan for launching a full-fledged DC Movie Universe.

Citing unnamed sources and using qualifiers like “remains in flux,” (this is, after all, Nikki Finke), the report claims that Warner Bros. did not, as has been reported, delay the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for script reasons, but instead to lock down contracts for actors wanted for several subsequent DC movies in order to start setting up continuity-establishing appearances in each other’s movies. Finke further claims to know the current plans for the first three years of this universe, which looks like this:

May 2016 – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
July 2016 – Shazam (aka Captain Marvel)
Xmas 2016 – Sandman (Neil Gaiman version)
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man of Steel 2

If legitimate, this would mark the first official confirmation of Wonder Woman getting her own movie following her already known debut in Dawn of Justice, and the first mention period of Man of Steel having an actual sequel separate from the Batman team-up. The Flash/Lantern team-up is also new, and while Finke does not mention whether Flash will be the version from the upcoming TV series (and Arrow) she does insinuate that he will cameo in Dawn along with the already announced Cyborg. Surprising absolutely no one, Ryan Reynolds will not return to the role of Green Lantern.

The report’s language would also appear to reveal the likely planned lineup of heroes for the first Justice League movie: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. If so, that’s notably the same as the controversial New 52 lineup.

Given the sourcing, it’s possible that at least some or even all of this could be accurate – or none of it could. Warner Bros. is widely expected to have a huge DCU announcement planned for San Diego Comic-Con next month.

Source: NikkiFinke.com