2019
- Shazam! (dir. TBA)
- April 5, 2019
- Dwayne Johnson
As one of the few men alive who looks and acts like a superhero, Dwayne Johnson has been promising such a role for years. He’s been linked to a Lobo film and as a possible Green Lantern but the role he’s been associated with for almost a decade is Black Adam, the archnemesis of Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel). Johnson liked the character’s ability to take on Superman. Recent years have seen Black Adam become more of a dark antihero than a straight-up villain, perfect for the likable and charismatic Johnson. He committed to the 2019 film in 2014.
Since it was set up at WB’s subsidiary New Line Cinema, it was never clear if Shazam! would indeed be a DCEU movie, (which now come out under DC Films), especially after the Vertigo titles were shuffled New Line. But quotes from Johnson’s producing partner/manager Dany Garcia from Newsweek last week say otherwise.
“Shazam! is to live in the same world (as the other films), but we have incredible autonomy over this brand and franchise. We are working with a different team, different producers, directors…it’s a different set-up. We don’t feel fettered by, or constrained by, the successes or failures and challenges of the other projects. That was a key component to our participation—that we be able to control the tone and the voice, and do it the way we want to.”
“It needs to be of the world. You’ve got Justice League, Wonder Woman with a different director, so you’re going to see different points of view. I think by the time we land with (Shazam!) we’ll fit nicely within the world that’s been created, but not such a shorthand relationship. (It’ll be) enough that people say, ‘Oh, this is within the family,’ but the culture will be a little different.”
Right, script drafts are being written/turned in with an exacting eye toward Black Adam, a morally ambiguous character they’re gladly taking their time with to get him just right. With so much attention paid to that character, you’d forget Johnson would ostensibly be the villain of the piece, leaving the hero, young Billy Batson aka Shazam, a question mark. Another question: do they use the same actor but CGI his face on a new body a la Captain America: The First Avenger? Or do they cast a teenager as Billy and an adult as Shazam? The former seems more plausible. There’s something cool about a puny kid leveling up to fight the Rock.
- Justice League 2 (dir. Zack Snyder)
- June 14, 2019
- Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher
Formerly a Part 2, this sequel learned the same lesson the Avengers: Infinity War duology did and wisely got rid of the impression Justice League would be one film split in two. Audiences have accurately assessed two-parters as a moneymaking ploy that compromises good storytelling and want films that tell standalone stories with a beginning, middle and end (the fact that this has to be promised is proof of how far Hollywood filmmaking has sunk).
“No . . . We’re only ever planning and we are only doing Justice League, just Justice League. One movie,” Deb Snyder said during the Justice League set visit in May and afterward Geoff Johns confirmed the title of the film would forego any Part 1 or subtitle. Zack Snyder is still set to direct this sequel (supposedly) but you can bet that will change if Justice League gets anything close to the reception BvS did.
Justice League 2 will complete the Darkseid trilogy begun in Dawn of Justice. Snyder has previously teased that, like in the comics, the ruler of Apokolips is after the Anti-Life Equation. There’s a delicious irony that Darkseid, arguably the ultimate evil of the DC universe, will be beat to the screen by his Marvel knockoff Thanos. I have no doubts of how epic this film will be but I wonder if it and/or its villain isn’t hamstrung from the start by its uncanny similarity to its rival i.e. a square-faced alien aims to become all-powerful god via MacGuffin. At that point, it will really come down to the basics: are we invested in these characters on screen? Or are we invested in the comics the characters sprang from? It’s all the difference in the world.
