Highly anticipated: At the digital FanDome convention, DC Comics and Warner Bros. showed off half a dozen of their next biggest releases. They played the first trailers for The Batman, The Suicide Squad, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (the Snyder cut). They revealed two new trailers for Wonder Woman 1984 and Tenet. And they announced two new games, Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Let’s start with the big films.
Robert Pattinson stars as the caped crusader in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The trailer is pretty edgy and dark, but unlike other recent DC films, seems to have solid thematic foundations – dare I say it takes after Joker?
The Suicide Squad is a new movie, despite the title’s similarity to the 2016 film. It is, technically, a sequel, but judging from the teaser it’s set in a parallel or otherwise loosely-related world. “This is a gritty 1970s war movie.” Directed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn and featuring a mix of the old cast and new stars. There are two videos for this film, the main teaser is embedded below, but a roll-call style cast overview is here.
This has to be a weird one: DC is releasing Zack Snyder’s cut of the 2017 Justice League film on HBO Max next year. In four, hour-long installments. It’s what fans wanted and it’s great they got it, but really? Is a sub-par plot spread over four hours going to be better than a sub-par plot and a bad-mustache-photoshop-job spread over ninety minutes?
And now into the realm of movies with release dates: here’s another trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, expected to reach cinemas on October 2. The new trailer offers the first glimpse of Kristen Wiig as Cheetah, one of the main villains in the film. The action scenes involving her look pretty cool, but Wiig’s transformation to a cat-human hybrid is awkwardly reminiscent of the Cats movie.
Tenet: the time-bending thriller by Christopher Nolan, starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson (though presumably not as Batman this time). There’s not much new in this trailer but it looks like a good film. It airs on September 3, “where theaters are open.”
Onto the games.
Warner Bros. Montreal has finally revealed the long-rumored and much-awaited Gotham Knights. It’s a big open-world title set in Gotham, in the aftermath of Batman’s death, in which Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood stand up against crime. It’s from the same studio as the Batman: Arkham games, and seems to take after them as well, so it should be pretty good. The entire campaign can be completed solo or in co-op. It’ll be available next year on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. The cinematic trailer is embedded below but gameplay can be found here.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a new title by Rocksteady Studios (who made the other Arkham games, including Arkham Knight). The trailer depicts a small group of anti-heroes, a group that’s somehow different from those in both Suicide Squad films, preparing for battle against Superman. It’s a bit early to say but it looks like your standard superhero game crossed with a Just Cause title. It releases in 2022 for PC and next-gen consoles.
There are a couple of other honorable mentions amongst the goings-on at FanDome. Dwayne Johnson appears in a rudimentary Black Adam teaser, as Black Adam himself. The film is expected to release late next year.
Ezra Miller appeared in a new Flash costume as a promo for the upcoming The Flash film. And lastly, Neil Gaiman came out to say that Netflix’s Sandman series is still in progress but has been slightly delayed by the pandemic.