Earlier today, news broke that Black Adam and DC League of Super-Pets have both been delayed. While we'll still get to watch those movies on the big screen in 2022, the same sadly can't be said for The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It felt a little too good to be true that we'd get so many DC Comics movies in such close proximity to one another, and something clearly had to give.
The Flash has moved from November 4, 2022 to June 23, 2023. The Aquaman sequel, meanwhile, has shifted from December 16, 2022 to March 17, 2023, which means it will no longer battle James Cameron's long-awaited Avatar sequel at the box office over the holiday period.
Due to its Christmas setting, the prevailing theory has been that Batgirl would drop on HBO Max in December. However, with The Flash - a movie we know will rewrite the DC Extended Universe's timeline - pushed into 2023, we doubt that's going to be the case. It's not all doom and gloom, as Shazam! Fury of the Gods has actually been brought forward and will now drop this year!
After originally being scheduled for next June, it's taken Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom's spot and will go head-to-head with Avatar 2. That's a bold move on Warner Bros.' part, but the superhero movie promises to be a better alternative to Cameron's sequel than Arthur Curry's next solo outing. Why? the Disney movie is expected to feature a lot of underwater sequences likely to overshadow Atlantis.
The Hollywood Reporter explains that COVID and delayed work on visual effects is the main reason for these release date changes, so the impact of the pandemic is clearly still being felt.
We can't really complain about getting The Batman, DC League of Super-Pets, Black Adam, and the Shazam! sequel in one year, but it's going to be a long wait for The Flash and Aquaman 2...