by Pierre Lorenz on December 8, 2022

This week we got another wave of announcements from Warner Bros. As The Hollywood Reporter exclusively claims, DC is facing the biggest reorganization in years and many movies are affected by the restructuring.

The first piece of news concerns the planned third movie in the "Wonder Woman" franchise. Although leading actress Gal Gadot still made promo for "Wonder Woman 3" on Twitter this week, the movie is now completely put on hold. The reason is a creative disagreement between director Patty Jenkins and DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. Jenkins' worked-out plan no longer fits the current vision of Safran and Gunn, and thus the film has been scrapped - obviously also to the surprise of Gal Gadot. Patty Jenkins had been drafting the script since 2019, even before the release of Wonder Woman 1984, and she also said that the story arc had always been designed for three separate films. When an official confirmation for the third part followed two days after the theatrical release of "Wonder Woman 1984", barely anyone actually had doubts about the completion of the film, although neither the reviews nor the box-office takings were worth mentioning.

The second piece of news concerns "Man of Steel 2", which has been repeatedly teased in recent weeks and - boosted by Henry Cavill's appearance in "Black Adam 2" - was considered as good as certain. However, as early as November, occasional rumors surfaced that the likelihood of it happening was not as high as it was believed to be. Nevertheless, even Dwayne Johnson did not grow tired of emphasizing his merit in the return of Henry Cavill until recently. Safran and Gunn seem to have other plans in their new position as DC bosses, however, as "Man of Steel 2" is officially no longer on the agenda. That's because the Snyderverse and all the superheroes involved are to be removed to create a clear cut between the "old" and "new" DCEU. The DC heads are now taking all sorts of steps to report back to Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav next week and present their plans for the universe. Still, the decision not to let Henry Cavill return after all is likely to cause great frustration among fans. After all, Cavill is considered a true fan favorite.

Things are not looking good for the sequel to "Black Adam" at the moment either, as the box office results do not reflect the expectations of those responsible at all. So far, the film has grossed just under $390 million on a production budget of up to $230 million, which is far from a success. According to a Variety article from last week, "Black Adam" would need to bring in about 600 million US dollars to cover all costs, including marketing, and turn a profit. At the moment, however, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, even though Dwayne Johnson published his own figures on Twitter on Wednesday, claiming the opposite. So the odds of a sequel are low for "Black Adam" as well.

Next, we'd like to talk about the "Aquaman" franchise. The second part will be released on December 25, 2023 - but what will happen after that? In all likelihood, the "Aquaman" franchise will not survive the restructuring either, so after "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" it will probably all be over for Jason Momoa's character. According to current reports, however, the actor himself will not be written off, but rather given a new role in DC's future. Momoa is reportedly set to play the alien bounty hunter Lobo, who made his first appearance in the Omega Men comics in 1983. In the 2018 series "Krypton", which is a prequel to "Superman", Lobo was already embodied by Emmett J. Scanlan. In fact, even back then there were people who envisioned Jason Momoa much more suited for the role.

Finally, in addition to all the surprise decisions, which surely not everyone will be pleased with, we would like to announce one piece of positive news: "The Batman" franchise is exempt from the restructuring, so Matt Reeves is still working on "The Batman 2", and the further expansion of the film series should also move forward.