DCEU News Roundup: Ben Affleck Is Out, James Gunn Is In

An avalanche of news regarding the future of the DCEU dropped late in the day yesterday. You might have missed it as it came right as most newsrooms on the West Coast were wrapping up and everyone on the East Coast was well into dinner or their nightly Netflix binge. In case it did slide under the radar for you, here’s everything we know about the new developments for Warner Bros. and DC.

Ben Affleck Is Officially Out As Batman

According to Deadline, the Matt Reeves-directed Batman movie we weren’t sure we were ever getting is actually, for real real happening this time. In fact, it’s so happening that it now has an official release date of June 25, 2021. Reeves, the director of Cloverfield and the last two installments of the Planet of the Apes trilogy, is still on board as the writer and director of the movie. Ben Affleck, however, is out. The movie will reportedly focus on a younger version of Batman and that’s why Affleck is officially hanging up the cowl. After years of uncertainty and an ever-changing slate of movies, however, we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not too broken up about passing the torch. In any case, Affleck was very classy about it, wishing Matt Reeves and the future good luck.

Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life. https://t.co/GNgyJroMIO

— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) January 31, 2019

Absolutely no word yet on who the new Batman will be, so buckle up for another months-long round of casting rumors. Hopefully, DC already has an actor signed and is just waiting for an opportune time to announce it.

While one guy is officially out, another is officially in…

James Gunn Will Also Direct The ‘Suicide Squad’ Sequel

Okay, so this news from THR’s Heat Vision isn’t entirely surprising, considering we’ve known for a while now that Gunn had been tapped to write the sequel to Suicide Squad after Disney’s controversial decision to let him go after old, offensive tweets of his resurfaced. Fans were, well…none too happy about that decision, so the news that he’ll be back in the director’s chair for Marvel’s rival is somewhat of a poetic but unsurprising turn of events. With the news that he’s in talks to also direct came a release date of August 6, 2021, so Warner Bros. is moving full speed ahead on this. We can expect Gunn’s script is zipping along, as well. It will be interesting to see how he separates the Suicide Squad from his Guardians of the Galaxy crew, considering the former was somewhat patterned on the latter and Gunn has a very distinct style. If anyone can make it something unique, it’s Gunn. He’ll also have a bit more leeway than we originally anticipated because…

It’s Not Going To Be A Sequel But More Of A Reboot

Getting Gunn to be the writer-director absolutely makes sense, but the news that the Suicide Squad sequel won’t really be a sequel but a relaunch is a bit of a head-scratcher. It was mostly agreed upon that the first film was, uh, not great, but the cast was really solid. However, word is that Gunn’s movie will be titled The Suicide Squad and will be a relaunch rather than a direct sequel. On top of that, it was reported that the script will take the Squad in an entirely new direction and will incorporate a mostly all-new cast of characters (and actors). At this point, it’s pretty clear Warner Bros. has blown up the entire concept of a connected universe and will focus on standalone, director-driven films moving forward, for better or for worse. But with directors like Reeves and Gunn on board, it will certainly be anything but boring.

And one last bit of news Tokyo drifted into the news cycle in between all the big updates about Reeves, Affleck, and Gunn…

We’re Definitely Getting A Super Pets Movie

Last summer, it was reported that Warner Bros. was quietly working on an animated Super Pets movie. Everyone mostly forgot about that (us included). But that movie is officially a go, and it’s far enough along that it even has a release date now: May 21, 2021, as well as the official title of DC Super Pets. If you have no clue who the Super Pets are, they’re a team of crime-fighting pets from various DC superheroes: Superman’s dog, Krypto; Batman’s dog, Ace the Bat-Hound; Supergirl’s cat, Streaky; and a handful of others. The furry group of heroes has been around since 1962 in the comics, and they’ve gotten a few cartoon shorts, but this is the first feature-length film for the team.

News now:
BATMAN gets a release date: June 25, 2021!
SUICIDE SQUAD 2 gets a release date: August 6, 2021!
And
DC SUPER PETS (?!) is an actual movie that also has a release date. May 21, 2021

— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) January 31, 2019