DC releases new footage from Black Adam, The Flash, and Aquaman 2 in its 2022 superhero movie teaser
This is our first real look at Aldis Hodge in full Hawkman mode—plus lots of shots of Dwayne Johnson in his fancy pajamas
Film News Aquaman
It’s been a quiet couple of years for Warner Bros.’ DC Comics film properties—still sometimes referred to, with a minimum of catchiness, as the DC Extended Universe. While their rivals over at Marvel have released four films in 2021, DC unleashed only one, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. (Two, if you count Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)
That’s set to change pretty dramatically this year, though, something Warner Bros. made clear today with a new teaser showcasing the four superhero films it expects to deploy in 2022: The Batman, Black Adam, The Flash, and Aquaman sequel The Lost Kingdom.
(If we’re getting nit-picky here, it’s not clear yet if The Batman—a sort of Hail Mary pass to keep the character active in movie theaters after Ben Affleck got so, so tired of it—formally “counts” as a DCEU film. It’s definitely getting the push, though.)
Among other things, said teaser includes more footage than we’ve previously seen from Flash, Aquaman, and especially Black Adam, which had previously only shown off some concept art and a very brief teaser. We’ve got plenty more to chew on now, including lots of shots of the members of the Justice Society who’ll be serving as Dwayne Johnson’s supporting cast.
That includes footage of Aldis Hodge going full-Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan doing a little enigmatic mentoring as the helmeted Doctor Fate, and Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell getting in some face time as Atom Smasher and Cyclone, respectively. All that, in addition to a lot of The Rock doing his patented Pensive Face.
The Flash stuff, meanwhile, is mostly material we’ve seen before, although it continues to be kind of surreal to hear Michael Keaton’s voice attached to it. (He’s reprising his role from the 1989 Batman, a concept that remains thrilling despite our best internal efforts.) And James Wan’s Aquaman footage mostly just shows that, yep, Jason Momoa is still Aquaman, DC’s wettest champion.
All of this is wrapped up with a message asserting that “The World Needs Heroes!”, because clearly we’ve all been waiting for The Wet Man to come back and give us a little hope in these dark times. DC’s 2022 slate will begin rolling off the line next month, with The Batman in theaters on March 1; Black Adam lands on July 29, followed by The Flash on November 4, and Aquaman on December 16.
40 Comments
All the footage looked good, although it is really hard to actually say how the movies will come together. Still really excited to see how things unfold and hopeful for the films, although the Black Adam clips made me a bit nervous as I was hoping that they would keep the more villaneous bent of the character.Having written all that, I did guffaw when this article suggested that Reeves’s Batman film is some kind of a hail mary because of… Ben Affleck? Like I know that AV Club has their issues with DCEU movies, but that is not just a ridiculous thing to write and get through the editing process, but also bizarrely unnecessary.
From a revenue perspective, Batman has been underperforming since the Nolan era, and that’s the one character that DC can usually count on to make them lots of cash, so ‘hail mary’ is not that far off the mark.
Really? Oh man, that really explains why they made the decision to not have their animated features so heavily feature Batman. Or have him be central in almost all DCU promotional material, there really isn’t any money left in the character. Really good to learn this as me as a dumb person thought that he was one of the most prominent pop culture characters currently.
By the way, no, describing this as a Hail Mary situation is fucking moronic as it would imply that if this fails, then the Batman cinematic franchise is dead and buried. Also there’s been three Batman big screen movies since the Nolan films, of which Lego Batman was actually wildly profitable and, at least based on metrics provided, WB seemed to be satisfied with outcome of the Snyder Cut of the Justice League. Also you probably noticed how that list didn’t even include Joker which is one of the most profitable movies of all time.
You’re really passionate.
We all have our stupid pet peeves we are passionate about, didn’t even realize this one of mine.
That’s batman fans for ya.
And also they had set up their extended universe with Affleck’s version of Batman, and then Affleck decided he would like to not do that anymore so yeah they’ve gotta throw up some prayers and hope something sticks now.
Do they have to come together? Just enjoy them as movies.
Oh no, I didn’t mean that movies need to do an Avengers thing, rather that will they come succeed what they are trying to do as individual movies. Hence will they come together to be entertaining.
Ooooh okay, sorry Marvel brain poison. Well to that I’d say having four movies crammed into a very short trailer thing is probably a bad way to tell and we’ll know more as they get closer to release.
“because clearly we’ve all been waiting for The Wet Man to come back”
Well, you went almost the whole way without using your bare hand to wipe your ass and then smear it all over your face, but you just couldn’t help yourself.
Looks fine. I am mostly anticipating Black Adam.
You mean Scorpion King 6?
Too many superheroes
Please eliminate one.
Not a crackpot.
Just don’t watch one. You even get to pick.
I’m eliminating The Batman!
But then there’ll be too many supervillains.
Wait, you sound like a supervillain. Are you a supervillain? Pretty sure you have to tell me (in a scene-chewing monologue) if you’re a supervillain.
If it’s so simple, why haven’t you done it already?
Signed, Mr L. Luthor, Metropolis
I’m still not convinced The Flash movie is EVER going to come out.
From all the scoopers talk about it, it seems WB is really confident in that one, not in small part thanks to the director being Andy Muschietti. I feel like it could end up being a surprise hit for DC like Aquaman was.
Since it apparently involves multiverses and time travel, maybe it came out already?
“Only in theaters”
*sigh*
I know they get to double-dip by releasing in cinemas first and then at home second, but still.. We have the technology to release content to the world simultaneously and we’re still being locked into this forced staged release rubbish.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow, but we’ll try to keep it the way it was 30 years ago.
Same, I’m not sure when I’ll be comfortable going back to theaters. At the moment I feel very okay waiting out that new Batman until it’s on HBO.
Yeah, I didn’t even mention circumstances surrounding the pandemic, but surely that’s still a factor many people take into consideration.
I’m glad most people reportedly are vaccinated, and restrictions are easing in parts, but the idea of “returning back to normal” seems to be ignoring some learning from what we’ve just been through to make things easier and more accessible for everyone. That’s what technology is for.
Totally, streaming is a gift that the studios should be utilizing. I’d totally pay $20ish dollars for some new Batman at home opening weekend.
They only have 45 day theatrical windows now. Feels reasonable.
Feels reasonable for whom? It probably makes the movie industry more money, but otherwise this forced stagnation of technology use seems to be to the detriment of everyone else. Unless there’s some benefit I’m getting that I’m missing?
Reasonable to the film-makers mainly. Many of whom got angry about the simultaneous HBO Max releases of 2021. Also to the cinemas, who would prefer exclusive content. 45 days is Reasonable for those who prefer to wait as well. It’s nothing like how it was a minimum 90 day window prior to the pandemic.
So like I said, it probably makes the movie industry more money.
Otherwise I’d just prefer to be given the choice since it’s possible.
Look, I prefer the choice as well. I hate cinemas. Hate them. But I understand where they’re coming from. 30-45 day windows feel reasonable to me. A pot of those film-makers and actors have that romantic view of cinemas, and shorter windows feels like a fair compromise to me.
We just disagree about this. Those film-makers and actors can still have their romantic view of cinemas, it just shouldn’t get in the way of accessibility for the general public. I don’t even think the issues are comparable. There’s no practical need for compromise. A delay window is an old and stifling way of thinking and it’s greed on the movie industry’s part. They know they can’t compete with giving people choice, so they just take our choice away. Nothing really fair about it.
Look, let’s call out the elephant in the room here: simultaneous streaming releases slam the door open for piracy. Those HBO Max releases all throughout 2021? The second they went online only in America, they were spreading like wildfire worldwide through piracy sites. Piracy does completely shatter the box office and even the streaming dollars of any of these movies. They’ll inevitably reach piracy sites, but a small theatrical window at least allows some breathing room where the film can make money without piracy decapitating it on day one.
Hopefully we can all agree that the greed of the movie industry quantifiably outweighs the greed of movie pirates.
But let’s not start the piracy debate. You’ve already brought up arguments I disagree with. Neither of us have the stats, and if we do there’ll be stats to counter them. I’ve seen debates about piracy last weeks and neither side wins.
It’s undeniable though that piracy slices quite heavily into these simultaneous movies. The suicide squad was a box office disappointment partly due to piracy killing it. Which is a damn shame. I will say again, I agree with you that I would also love simultaneous releases. Love it. I hate cinemas. But I understand those are businesses that have employers and the studios need to make at least some sort of profit on their investments. 30 to 45 days feels reasonable. I can wait 45 days to watch a movie at home. That’s fine. People like nolan though, who specifically have stuff in contracts ordering exclusive windows as high as 120 days, that’s insanity to me.
I understand your second and third paragraphs.
But where do you get the idea that piracy played a significant enough part in making The Suicide Squad a box office flop? I’ve just googled over half a dozen different articles that don’t even mention piracy. HBO Max subscriptions are the reason the box office takings were down and Warner Bros. owns that, so the studios are doing just fine.
Black Adam supported Lex Luther until he heard him use the n-word.
Why did they cover Hawkman’s nipples again?
My JSA folks look beautiful. Seems to be greatly cast, too. Shame about the Rock.The Flash helmet looks better in that new shot. The one seen in the previous trailer seems to be an early CGI work or just a bad angle for it. I’m sold now.Aquaman seems to have very little to show at this moment, which is unsurprising since it’s the furthest out in December.
The Rock playing….The Rock. Riveting