DC News: Matt Reeves-directed 'The Batman,' James Gunn's 'Suicide Squad' reboot, and more receive release dates

With hours left on this chilly Wednesday evening, an impressive series of Warner Bros./DC bombshells dropped just in time to send superhero fans into a tizzy. 

Let's set the scene, shall we? After the runaway success of Wonder Woman and the unmitigated disaster of Justice League, Warner Bros. and DC set the stage for a soft reboot of their comic book properties in 2018, waiting until December to unleash Aquaman upon the world. While James Wan's film received a mixed critical reception, it recently became the biggest DC movie of all time at the global box office. So that's a huge win for the studio. This year, they'll be releasing David F. Sandberg's kid-geared Shazam! and Todd Phillips' presumably R-rated Joker, branching out with their director-driven approach in some significant ways. In 2020, Cathy Yan will take on Birds of Prey and Patty Jenkins will return for Wonder Woman 1984. Until hours ago, those were the only officially scheduled DC films on the calendar. 

Coming in the aftermath of an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in which director Matt Reeves discussed his plans for his solo Batman project, The Batman is officially set to arrive in theaters on June 25, 2021, as exclusively reported by Deadline. In one of the most important details for avid fans of the DC Extended Universe, it was finally confirmed today that Ben Affleck, who played Bruce Wayne in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, will not be returning as the Caped Crusader. Responding to the news, Affleck responded by linking to the Deadline article and tweeting: "Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life."

Shortly after The Batman's release date was revealed to the world, a number of additional Warner Bros.' projects received new release dates. Per THR, The Suicide Squad (more on this one in a second) will be the second major DC release of the year, hitting theaters on August 6, 2021. In an interesting twist, it appears that DC is getting into the theatrical animation game with DC Super Pets, which will be directed by Jared Stern and Sam Levine and produced by Patty Hicks for a May 21, 2021 release. The film will follow Krypto, Ace the Bat-hound, and Streaky the Cat, so it's probably guaranteed for a billion dollars. In non-DC related news, Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep has moved from January 2020 to November 8, 2019 (a pretty huge sign of confidence, I must add), while Robert Zemeckis' The Witches will arrive in theaters on October 16, 2020. 

If you thought that was all, you were wrong. While Warner Bros. opted not to date any of their additional in-development titles, THR's Borys Kit came in with a big scoop, reporting that James Gunn is officially on-board as the director of The Suicide Squad after signing on to pen the script. In case you've forgotten last summer's drama, Gunn was originally set to direct Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 before right-wing agitators dredged up old controversial tweets, resulting in Disney chief Bob Iger deciding to fire the filmmaker. Gunn issued several apologies, the cast of Guardians revolted, the project was thrown in limbo- it was a big mess. But even if Disney couldn't handle Gunn's off-color remarks, plenty of other studios were willing to work with the filmmaking, including Warner Bros. He'll be basically rebooting Suicide Squad, and according to THR, this will very much be a James Gunn film. So you bet I'm excited. 

New films from Reeves and Gunn? Everyone should be thrilled, no matter if you're a rabid superhero fan or not. Look for more on these films, including official casting details, in the coming months. 

Images: IMDb