The first day of DC FanDome is over, and it has been a day jam-packed with news for fans of DC’s many franchises. Things got started early on Saturday with a Wonder Woman: 1984 panel and a WB Games Montreal panel. While the former was filled with some fluff, it delivered a Wonder Woman: 1984 trailer. The latter offered up the announcement of Gotham Knights (along with a gameplay video). In this new Batman-themed co-op game, Bruce Wayne is dead.
A trailer for The Batman premiered toward the end of the day, coming just after our first looks at The Suicide Squad and Justice League’s Snyder Cut, among many other things. We also got to find out the first details about Batman: Arkham developer Rocksteady’s new game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It, like Gotham Knights, is a co-op action game.
Ahead of the event, DC announced it was splitting the event between two days: one on August 22 and the other on September 12. As a result, this weekend’s lineup for the show has changed quite a bit. All of the movie panels and a few high-profile TV panels took place on August 22, while everything else has been moved to September. The updated schedule is located below and details on how to watch DC FanDome live and what this whole event even is.
How to Watch DC FanDome
Anyone can watch DC FanDome live for free. You do not need an account or to register in any way–to watch the event, head to the DC FanDome Livestream site, and you can take in all of the panels throughout the day. There will also be re-runs of meetings in case you miss anything. Most of the significant happenings will be in that one Livestream, which consists of the Hall of Heroes panels.
DC FanDome Announcements
Wonder Woman 1984
Wonder Woman 1984 (also marketed as WW84: Wonder Woman 1984) is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. It is the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham and a story by Johns and Jenkins. It will star Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen in supporting roles. Set in 1984, during the Cold War, the film will follow Diana as she faces Maxwell Lord and Cheetah. Discussion of a sequel began shortly after the first film was released in June 2017, and the decision to proceed was confirmed the following month. Principal photography began on June 13, 2018, with filming taking place at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in England, as well as the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia in the United States, London and Duxford in England, Tenerife and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands and Almería in Andalusia, Spain—and finished on December 22, 2018, after a six-month shoot. Additional filming took place in July 2019. Wonder Woman 1984 is scheduled to be released in North America by Warner Bros. Pictures in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX, and IMAX 3D on October 2, 2020.
Gotham Knights Game
Gotham Knights is an upcoming action role-playing video game based on Batman’s DC Comics character and his supporting cast. The game is being developed by WB Games Montréal and will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is set to be released in 2021 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. It was first revealed at DC FanDome in August 2020. The game’s story takes place sometime after Batman’s apparent death. With the GCPD having grown corrupt following James Gordon’s death, there is a rise of crime and lawlessness in the city, leaving Batman’s allies – Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood – as the only ones able to restore justice to Gotham and prevent it from descending into chaos. During the game, the heroes will come into conflict with the Court of Owls, a secret criminal society that is as old as Gotham itself, and their legion of brainwashed assassins called Talons.
The Suicide Squad
While we did not get a trailer for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, we found out who was playing in the star-studded cast. (John Cena is playing Peacemaker, whom he described as “douchey Captain America.”) For more, check out our roundup of everything we learned about The Suicide Squad.
Shazam 2
While the cast and director could not reveal much about the upcoming movie, which will not arrive until Fall 2022, we got an official title. Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Additionally, comedian Sinbad hijacked the panel to talk about himself and demanded a role.
Justice League’s Snyder Cut
Zack Snyder’s Justice League, commonly referred to as the “Snyder Cut,” is the upcoming director’s cut of the 2017 American superhero film Justice League. It presents the Justice League—the fifth film of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and based on the same name—as director Zack Snyder had intended it before he left the production and Joss Whedon took over his duties. It features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen J.K. Simmons. Like the theatrical release, Zack Snyder’s Justice League follows the Justice League—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—as they attempt to save the world from the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. The theatrical Justice League, released by Warner Bros. in 2017, suffered a problematic production. Its script underwent significant changes before and during production between 2016 and 2017. In May 2017, Snyder stepped down during post-production following his daughter’s death, and Whedon took over, completing the film as an uncredited director.
Whedon oversaw reshoots and other changes that added a brighter tone and more humor and cut the runtime down to 120 minutes following a mandate from Warner Bros. The theatrical Justice League was a box-office bomb and received mixed reviews, leading Warner Bros. to re-evaluate the future of the DCEU and focus development on individual films. As details surfaced about the film’s troubled production and its state before Snyder stepped down, many fans expressed interest in an alternate cut more faithful to Snyder’s vision. Fans and members of the cast and crew petitioned to release this, which they nicknamed the Snyder Cut. At the time, industry insiders regarded the release as unlikely. However, Warner Bros. decided to move ahead with it in February 2020; the following May, Snyder announced that the original cut would be released as Zack Snyder’s Justice League via the streaming service HBO Max. The restoration will cost $20–30+ million to complete the visual effects, score, and editing. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is scheduled to be released around early to mid-2021 on HBO Max. It will initially be released as a four-part miniseries, with each episode being an hour long. This will be followed by a version that combines the attacks into a four-hour film.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is set to be released in 2022 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. Set in the same continuity as the Batman: Arkham series, this game revolves around the titular antihero team’s attempts to defeat Brainiac, facing a mind-controlled Justice League in the process.
Aquaman 2
In December 2018, it was reported that Warner Bros. Entertainment chairman Toby Emmerich had the studio start developing a sequel. Discussions of a follow-up film had begun during post-production when director James Wan stated to TotalFilm that the first film purposefully left room for other stories. Jason Momoa told Syfy Wire that he had the beginning for a sequel written. After he pitched it to the studio through Emmerich and Safran, they were receptive and enthusiastic. In January 2019, the sequel was officially confirmed to be in development, with the studio courting Wan to return. The following month, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, co-writer of the first film, signed on as the screenwriter. Warner Bros. confirmed via The Hollywood Reporter that the studio had set a release date of December 16, 2022, with pre-production set to begin in 2020. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II told Uproxx that he would reprise his role as Black Manta for the sequel.
Black Adam
Dwayne Johnson will portray the character in both a spinoff movie and a planned Shazam! Sequel. In June 2019, Jaume Collet-Serra was announced as director for the film. Johnson announced on his Twitter account that Larry Sher would be the film’s Cinematographer. The film will be released on December 22, 2021, with principal photography initially scheduled to begin in July 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming has since been delayed to around August or September 2020.
The Flash Movie
The Flash’s new outfit:
In February 2018, it was announced that filmmaking duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, had signed on to direct the film. By July 2019, Daley and Goldstein had left the project; Andy Muschietti and Christina Hodson entered negotiations to direct and write a new draft of the script, respectively. Barbara Muschietti and Michael Disco additionally joined the project as producers. Filming is expected to begin in 2021. In January 2020, Muschietti stated that elements of the Flashpoint storyline would be incorporated into the film. In June 2020, it was reported that Michael Keaton was in early talks to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman for the film, a position which he previously played in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). In August 2020, Keaton was officially announced to appear in the film and that Ben Affleck would also be reprising his role as Batman from the DC Extended Universe. The Flash is scheduled to be released on June 3, 2022, after the previous release date of July 1, 2022.
