Well, if rumor is to be believed, ‘Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ is NOT the sequel to 2013’s ‘Man of Steel’ at all.  Though it is a follow up to that movie, there appears to be a stand-alone ‘Man of Steel 2’ in the works which will focus solely on Superman, slated for a 2018 release.  If you were wondering why ‘Batman V. Superman’ has been pushed back to 2016 instead of its original release date of 2015, it’s not due to casting or anything like that, it’s because Warner Brothers decided to make this movie its platform for launching a cinematic universe, similar to Marvel’s, thus the confirmed appearances of Wonder Woman and Cyborg and rumored appearances of The Flash and (a) Green Lantern.

Warner Brothers/DC are expected to make an official announcement at SDCC but here is the rumored slate they have planned:

May 2016 – Batman v Superman
July 2016 – Shazam
Xmas 2016 – Sandman
May 2017 – Justice League
July 2017 – Wonder Woman
Xmas 2017 – Flash and Green Lantern team-up
May 2018 – Man Of Steel 2

Sandman has been in the works for some time now, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt set to produce (and possibly more).  There have been rumblings of a Shazam! movie for quite some time as well, but it’s a little surprising to see it dated for such an early release.  Not surprisingly, DC is using a ‘Justice League’ movie to launch solo movies for its characters, unlike Marvel which released solo movies first, leading up to ‘The Avengers’.  Shazam and Sandman should be stand-alone movies, although Shazam may pop up in ‘Justice League’ since he was recently added to that team’s roster and was in ‘Justice League: War’.  And rumors persist that Aquaman will appear in the ‘Justice League’ movie but doesn’t have a solo movie scheduled yet.

The biggest news is that WB/DC actually does have plans to bring Wonder Woman to the big screen in her own movie.  Gal Gadot signed a multi-movie deal to portray the Amazon Princess, kicking off with ‘Batman V. Superman’ and building off of ‘Justice League’.

What’s interesting is that The Flash and Green Lantern are getting a team-up movie rather than either character getting a solo movie.  Of course, Green Lantern already got a solo shot in the forgettable 2011 Ryan Reynolds flick.  Most recent rumors indicate that WB/DC will shift over to the John Stewart version of Green Lantern.

There is no mention of Guillermo Del Toro‘s ‘Justice League Dark’ which isn’t much of a surprise, considering that the director has several projects on his plate and hasn’t indicated that ‘JLD’ has even begun preliminary development.

There has also been talk of movies based on Metal Men and Suicide Squad, but those also are not scheduled.

What is included is a proper ‘Man of Steel’ sequel scheduled for May 2018, so anyone that feels that Superman is getting slighted in ‘Batman V. Superman’ should breathe a sigh of relieve, knowing that the hero will get a solo spotlight once again.

Noticeably absent is a Batman movie.  Then again, this could all turn out to be false or things could change as things develop behind the scenes.

This schedule of DC superhero movie releases is all just rumor at this point, so take everything with a grain of salt, but for now, what do you think?  Does this sound like a sound plan for Warner Brothers to move forward with?

Source: Nikkifinke.com