Upcoming DC Movies That Are Going To Blow Everyone Away

While the DC Universe has struggled in the past to find creative success, the company's comics have been battling Marvel for market share for decades, and that didn't happen accidentally. These are seriously iconic characters with no shortage of stories just waiting to be adapted for the big screen, and there's a large audience eager to watch them being told. 

Whether they take place in the DCU proper or other worlds like Matt Reeves' "Batman" universe or the "Joker" universe, DC films still remain popular despite several setbacks. And Warner Bros. remains committed to establishing it further, with plenty of DCU and other DC releases in various stages of development right now. We've watched the Justice League come together, but that was only the beginning of the DC domination. What do fans have to look forward to over the next half decade or so? Let's take a look.

Updated on July 23, 2024: To keep current on all things Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, we've updated this list to show the latest developments in the DC universe.

Not really an adaptation of any well-known comic series or graphic novel, the stark and gritty 2019 drama "Joker" was instead inspired by the long history of Batman's greatest foe. Director and co-writer Todd Phillips reimagines the character as Arthur Fleck, a struggling comedian suffering a full-on emotional breakdown. As "Joker" earned multiple Academy Award nominations and generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales, a sequel was bound to happen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, days after "Joker" opened to big box office numbers, Phillips discussed future DC Comics-based films with Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich. Rumors of a "Joker" sequel proliferated. Details were thin on the ground until June 2022, when Phillips posted a photo of a script cover page to his Instagram account, bearing the title "Joker: Folie à Deux." Phillips also snapped a pic of Phoenix reading the screenplay, and we can expect to see the star return on October 4, 2024, as part two of a series that will continue to exist outside of the DC Universe, in its own little corner of films known as DC Elseworlds.

But Phoenix won't be alone here, as the one and only Lady Gaga will be playing Harley Quinn. Apparently, she'll get to sing too, as the film is reportedly going to be a musical and set inside the imposing Arkham Asylum, according to Deadline. We also wonder if returning star Zazie Beetz and newcomers Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Harry Lawtey (from HBO's "Industry") will get a chance to show off their singing chops in the sequel, which started filming on December 10, 2022, according to a post on Phillips' Instagram account. Also returning is composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (via Variety), who won an Oscar for her work on the first film.

For a moment there, it looked like Henry Cavill was coming back for a "Man of Steel 2." After leaving Netflix's "The Witcher" and having a cameo in "Black Adam," Cavill was all set to don the cape and fight some crime. However, after James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the newly named DCU, "Man of Steel 2" was quickly scrapped and Cavill was retired from the role of Superman.

So what's in store for the Man of Steel in the DCU proper? Well, Gunn and Safran announced their initial slate of DCU projects on January 31, 2023, and the biggest film in the works — and the first film under the duo's guidance — is "Superman Legacy." Gunn has penned the script and will direct. As for the plot, Safran said, "It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned." According to an earlier report from Variety, the film will focus on Clark's early days as a reporter, where he'll meet characters like Lois Lane for the first time, although this hasn't been confirmed.

Casting remains undecided on "Superman Legacy," which is scheduled to hit movie theaters on July 11, 2025. We also know it'll kick off a new chapter of the DCU — similar to the phases of the MCU — that Gunn has called "Gods and Monsters," and the film will most likely have a PG-13 rating.

Warner Bros. and DC Comics know they've got one of the most lucrative franchises of all time with Batman and his vast world of side characters, colorful villains, settings, and lore. To that end, Warner has multiple Batman-based movies in the works that are totally separate from each other in terms of timeline, cinematic world, and tone. 

In addition to the comedic "Birds of Prey" offshoot "Black Canary" and the arthouse-worthy "Joker" and its sequel, there's 2022's "The Batman," starring Robert Pattinson as a just-starting-out Dark Knight, charged with stopping some particularly violent versions of familiar franchise villains, including the Penguin and the Riddler. The cast, and co-writer-director Matt Reeves, did such a good job establishing this new Batman world that Warner Bros. grew keen on expanding it, as the $770.8 million box office haul certainly proved a robust audience interest in the project.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a straight-to-HBO Max series "The Penguin," with Colin Farrell reprising his titular role is on the way. Meanwhile, according to THR, Reeves is actively conceptualizing a proper cinematic sequel to "The Batman" while also talking to other filmmakers about their ideas for more movies about additional members of the Caped Crusader's rogues' gallery. This means that over the next few years, filmgoers might get movies about Scarecrow, Clayface, and Professor Pyg, among others. But first, another full-fledged Batman movie. According to DCU heads James Gunn and Peter Safran (via TheWrap), "The Batman Part II" will be released on October 3, 2025. However, it won't be part of the DCU proper. Instead, "The Batman Part II" will be labeled a DC Elseworlds project and will exist in its own little world, away from the rest of the DC Universe.

With Henry Cavill's Superman no more, it looks like DC is going down two new paths — a film written by James Gunn about a young Clark Kent and a project from Ta-Nehisi Coates, with the former existing in the DCU proper and the latter existing under the DC Elseworld banner. In other words, Coates' movie will stand on its own two super-feet.

Here's what we know so far, thanks mostly to The Hollywood Reporter. Coates, known for his powerful social journalism and comic book runs with "Black Panther" and "Captain America," is penning the script. J.J. Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, are attached to the film on the production side, but Abrams isn't in the running to direct. Instead, DC and Warner Bros. are looking for both a Black director and a Black lead actor for the film. Rumored directors include Shaka King, Stephen Caple Jr., J.D. Dillard, Regina King, Ryan Coogler, and more. Actor Michael B. Jordan has already responded to rumors that he'd be donning the cape, saying he'd be flattered but was "just watching on this one."

As far as the film's plot, THR reports that it might be a "20th-century period piece," and that Coates' version of Superman is "a Kal-El in the vein of the original Superman comics." Finally, it's reported that this film will be its own thing and not part of the existing DC Universe. Obviously, these are early days, and there's a lot of speculation at this point, but keep your eyes peeled for more on this new version of Supes.

It's finally happening. Kara Zor-El is set for her big solo cinematic project. The film was announced in January 2023, when DCU heads James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed an ambitious slate of films and TV series (via TheWrap). Based on the eponymous comic book run by Tom King, "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" will offer a dark, space-based sci-fi revenge story. Describing the plot, Gunn explained, "We see the difference between Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant vs. Supergirl who was raised on a rock chip off of Krypton and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life," Gunn said.

According to /Film, King himself has been assisting Gunn in developing this project — part of the DCU's new chapter titled "Gods and Monsters" — although we're unsure who will play this darker, harder version of the character. In the upcoming Ezra Miller "Flash" movie, Sasha Calle will indeed appear as Supergirl. According to Deadline, Calle beat out hundreds of others to land the role. However, during Gunn and Safran's big presentation, they didn't say whether or not Calle would reprise the part in "Woman of Tomorrow," so we're still waiting to see what will happen in the casting department.

WildStorm is an edgy imprint of DC Comics, but it began life back in the 20th century as an independent publisher, best known for the superhero team-up title "Stormwatch." That resulted in the 1999 spinoff "The Authority," released after DC absorbed WildStorm and incorporated its characters into its own narrative canon. In 2023, James Gunn and Peter Safran announced (via TheWrap) that a standalone film based on the Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch comic series would be one of their first priorities as heads of the DCU.

Something of a rogue Justice League, the Authority boasts a revolving membership including characters like electricity-controlling Jenny Sparks, the liquid metal-based Engineer, the magical Doctor, and super-psychic Jack Hawksmoor. "One of the things with the DCU is it isn't just a story of heroes and villains and not every movie and TV show is going to be about good guy versus bad guy," Gunn said. "There are people that are anti-heroes, and there are people that are very questionable, like the Authority, who basically believe that you can't fix the world in an easy manner, and they sort of take things into their own hands." In other words, if the Authority think they can solve a problem, they'll do it — no matter how violent, controversial, or devastating their decisions.

As heads of the DCU, James Gunn and Peter Safran are faced with the tricky proposition of balancing multiple Batmans across multiple narrative timelines. For example, filmmaker Todd Phillips will continue to tell the story of Dark Knight adjacent villain the Joker with "Joker: Folie a Deux," and writer-director Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson will sequel up "The Batman," which Gunn and Safran will officially place outside the main DCU by releasing it under the Elseworlds banner.

In January 2023 (per TheWrap), Gunn and Safran announced yet another Batman project — the official one, the Caped Crusader of record. "This is the introduction of the DCU Batman, Bruce Wayne, and also introducing our favorite Robin, Damian Wayne." Based on Grant Morrison's comics series of the same name (and adapted into the 2008-2011 animated series "Batman: The Brave and the Bold,"), this version of the Batman mythos is part father-son drama, part superhero story, and part crime extravaganza. Gunn calls this Robin a "little son of a b**** assassin murderer," and he's also Batman/Bruce Wayne's long-lost son.

Safran has also said that we can expect to see other members of Batman's family, saying (via /Film), "We feel like they've been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long."

Before he was appointed one of the guardians of the lucrative and important DC Comics film universe and before he wrote and directed blockbusters like "Guardians of the Galaxy," James Gunn made humor-laced cult-beloved horror movies, such as "Tromeo and Juliet," "Dawn of the Dead," and "Slither." Decades later, it looks Gunn is going back to his roots. When announcing his first slate of DCU projects, Gunn told reporters (via TheWrap) that a new "Swamp Thing" movie was in preproduction as part of their "Gods and Monsters" chapter.

In the 1980s, the DC Comics-originated character headlined two campy, low-budget films, and in 2019, a "Swamp Thing" TV series lasted a single season. That saga concerns kind-hearted botanist Dr. Alec Holland, accidentally transformed into a plant monster who fights the bad guys who made him into a massive green swamp creature. Gunn and cohort Peter Safran plan to go back to square one with Swamp Thing and explore the character's "dark origins" in a feature film that will take place within the same universe as the other DCU movies.

So who will direct? Well, while these are still early days, Deadline has reported that James Mangold is in talks to helm the upcoming horror movie. Mangold is pretty skilled at handling dark superhero pics, as he directed both "The Wolverine" and "Logan." He's also helmed movies like "Ford v Ferrari," "3:10 to Yuma," and the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

The idea of a feature film based on the near-unstoppable alien bounty hunter Lobo has been kicking around even before the DCU's inception, with a Guy Ritchie-directed version (which was subsequently scrapped) discussed as far back as 2009. The project was revived as part of the DCU slate in 2016, with "San Andreas" and "Rampage" director Brad Peyton set to helm from a script by Jason Fuchs, who contributed to the screenplay for "Wonder Woman" and has also been tapped to pen the "Minecraft" video game adaptation. It was rumored in early 2018 that none other than Michael Bay was being eyed to take the reins, and Fuchs was still reported to be working on the script.

As is becoming a theme with the DCU, however, the television side of things has threatened to intervene. The second season of the Syfy series "Krypton" features Irish actor Emmett J. Scanlan taking on the role of Lobo, leading some observers to speculate that the character's feature film prospects had dimmed — but there's been no official word from Warners, so a starring vehicle for the ultra-violent baddie could still be in the cards. However, in December 2022, things got even more interesting when The Hollywood Reporter said that DC might possibly bring an end to the "Aquaman" series and recruit star Jason Momoa to play the cigar-chomping Lobo. Once again, the name of the game is "wait and see," but if there's one thing we know about Lobo, it's that he never quits.

Just before the late 2000s' explosion of big-budget comic book movies, Warner Bros. released "Constantine," a big-screen adaptation of the supernatural DC Comics title "Hellblazer." Keanu Reeves, fresh off "The Matrix," plays John Constantine, a sarcastic exorcist who communicates with angels and demons and travels between the mortal plane and spiritual underworld. Though it didn't garner the best reviews, "Constantine" earned a respectable $230 million at the global box office and eventually became a cult favorite.

Almost two decades after its release, Warner Bros. expressed interest in reviving the property. Deadline reported in September 2022 that a sequel is in the works. Reeves is apparently game to reprise the titular role, and Francis Lawrence, who directed the first film, will return for the follow-up as well. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman will pen the script. Now, if you're worried about new DCU heads James Gunn and Peter Safran scrapping the film, don't. According to Entertainment Weekly, "Constantine 2" is still moving forward, although at this time, we don't know if it will take place in the DCU proper or exist outside that cinematic universe as a "DC Elseworlds" project (we suspect the latter).