DC Announces Movies & Renews TV Shows – Did You Hear? Week of February 1st, 2019

Did You Hear? is a weekly examination of headlines in the entertainment industry and a take on what they could mean for the future of the industry and (often), the little geeky bubble that we occupy.

Batman Drops Affleck & Gets a Release Date

On the heels of the Birds of Prey news which dropped earlier this week, yesterday Warner Bros. made a big announcement about the future of Batman movies. Amidst the years-long swirling rumours that Ben Affleck would be hanging up the Dark Knight’s cape and cowl we finally have confirmation from the Bat’s mouth, so to speak.

This news also comes months after the Batgirl solo movie was shelved and we haven’t heard any buzz about the Nightwing picture in quite some time. My bet? Dick Grayson is next on the chopping block.

Deadline broke the news that the Matt Reeves Batman project would not only be moving forward without Ben Affleck, but that it had been slotted for a June 2021 release – landing it one year behind Wonder Woman 1984 with a June 5, 2020.

To his great credit, Affleck tweeted out in support of the future Bruce Wayne:

Ben Affleck on Twitter: “Excited for #TheBatman in Summer 2021 and to see @MattReevesLA vision come to life. https://t.co/GNgyJroMIO / Twitter”

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

Rumours are swirling about who should be next under the cowl and we would love to read your top picks in the comments section below!

Birds of Prey Drops Teaser

Warner Bros. upcoming Birds of Prey movie, produced by Margot Robbie (who will also be reprising her role as Harley Quinn in the film), dropped its very first teaser trailer this week in a move that reminded geeks everywhere that the DC Cinematic Universe has a future after Wonder Woman 1984:

(whoops, I mean “before” Birds of Prey currently has a February 7, 2020 release date)

Birds of Prey Teaser Trailer #1 (2020) | ‘See You Soon’ | Movieclips Trailers

Check out the official Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) trailer starring Margot Robbie! Let us know what you think in the…

Honestly, I wouldn’t even be as generous as to call this a teaser. It’s a bunch of costume tests edited together over a clever sound choice. I’m not hating on the clip – in fact, Birds of Prey is one of the DCEU offerings I’m most looking forward to – but as far as telling us anything meaningful about the movie there’s not much to go on. Harley Quinn is the only character actually wearing a costume with the eponymous Black Mask appearing distinctly … unmasked. Plus, Cassandra Cain fans, like myself, were given no clue as to whether we’d be getting a cinematic take on Batgirl, Black Bat, or Orphan.

Harley Quinn:

Huntress:

Black Canary:

Cassandra Cain:

Renee Montoya:

Black Mask:

Mr. Zsasz:

With Emerald City Comic Con and Wonder Con coming up soon one wonders if we were given this taste of the cinematic Birds of Prey in advance of a more substantial announcement.

Every DCTV Show Renewed

It’s TCA Season once again! Doesn’t it feel like it’s always TCA Season? The nice thing about the winter TCAs is so many of our favourite genre shows get renewed. As has happened in many years past, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that every show on The CW DCTV slate had been renewed.

This means there’s more Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow in store of all of us with the upcoming addition of Batwoman.

CW President, Mark Pedowitz had this to say:

This season, we expanded our primetime schedule to six nights with the addition of Sunday — which has been an unqualified success for the network, our affiliates and our advertisers. In addition to growing our schedule across the week, we also continue to add more year-round programming. The early renewal of these signature CW series gives us a head start on laying out the 2019-2020 season, and this is just the beginning. These shows provide a strong foundation for our multiplatform programming strategy, and we look forward to building on this with even more returning and new shows as we approach the May upfront.

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise given The CW’s propensity for keeping most of their slate around. For a couple years now it’s seemed as if Supergirl would be placed on the bubble, if not cancelled outright, so it is the only one I’m pleasantly surprised to see coming back for another season.

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