DC Movies ‘The Flash’ And ‘Aquaman 2’ Delayed To 2023, ‘Shazam 2’ Moved Up to 2022
Shortly after Dwayne Johnson announced that his two DC movies — DC League of Super-Pets and Black Adam — have been delayed, it surfaced that DC and Warner Bros. shifted the whole release schedule, which also included the upcoming DC movies Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Good news first, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which was previously set to be released in June 2023, has been moved up to December 16, 2022, which was a date previously reserved for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, while that movie is now set to open on March 17, 2023. This way, Aquaman 2 avoided box-office competition with James Cameron’s Avatar 2, Disney’s movie which is also set to be released on December 16. When we look at it, it seems that WB was ready to throw Shazam 2 under a bus to ensure that Aquaman 2 will make more money.
The Flash, an upcoming DC movie that was in development hell since it was announced in 2014 is now set to be released on June 23, 2023, which was a date previously reserved for Shazam 2. The Flash was previously set to be released on November 4, which is only one week before Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But with Black Adam now set to open on October 21, 2022, WB obviously thought that’s too many superhero films in such a short time period. Also, this is the fifth time that The Flash has been delayed. That’s a lot of delays, although still nowhere close to Morbius (delayed 7 times already).
These changes in the release calendar only affected movies that are set to be released in theaters, but this also begs to question of Batgirl. Even though that movie is set to be released exclusively on HBOMax, the movie was set to be released after The Flash, due to the chronological order. We’ll see how DC and WB will handle that issue now. Warner Bros. also announced new release dates for the Wonka movie starring Timothée Chalamet is now set to be released on December 15, 2023, while Jason Statham’s Meg 2 will be released on August 4, 2023.
Currently, the DC release calendar looks like this:
- DC League of Super-Pets — July 29, 2022
- Black Adam — October 21, 2022
- Batgirl — December 2021
- Shazam: Fury of the Gods — December 16, 2022
- Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — March 17, 2023
- The Flash — June 23, 2023