DC Cinematic Universe movies and shows we’re most looking forward to seeing

This film coming in August will be the first official entry in the DCU, and it’s a great character to start when you’re building a universe. An ordinary teenager named Jaime Reyes becomes the high-flying superhero when a scarab fuses itself to his spine. Even though the character has been around since the 1930s, Reyes’ incarnation didn’t start until 2006. If DC follows the lead of the Spider-verse movies that expand on both sides of the hero’s lives, the DCU will get a great head start.

Director Todd Phillips’ 2019 drama that helped Joaquin Phoenix win a Best Actor Oscar is easily the most divisive comic book movie in decades, and that’s precisely why we can’t wait for the sequel. The first Joker retooled with the classic villain origin story with a gritty Scorsese-esque tale about a man being pushed to emotional villainy no matter how hard he tries to fight it. The sequel will continue the story with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and musical numbers. If you’re going to tell the tale of a crazy person, it better be crazy.

We’ve lost track of how many Batman reboots Hollywood has attempted. The only thing more bewildering is how good the latest reboot was when it came out last year. We won’t get a sequel until 2025, but we know we’ll get back all of the principal cast except for Batman’s main villain. Whoever they get will have their work cut out for them since Paul Dano’s brilliant portrayal of The Riddler set the bar really high.

It feels like a long time since we’ve had a good Superman movie, and DC seems to realize that since they are completely retooling the latest version from the ground up. Gunn himself is working on the script and directing, which means whatever we get won’t be as heavy-handed and serious as the last few entries. Gunn also plans to focus the story on Superman’s origins and how they clash with his life on Earth. The possibilities are filled with potential.

Superman is the anchor of the DCU, so the studios are rebooting the Man of Steel with two new franchises. JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot is helming the other Superman reboot, with author and Black Panther and Captain America comic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates writing the script. The story itself is still unknown, but it will be a huge step forward for the superhero genre in general, with a diverse cast and a fresh new take on the hero’s story.

This TV spinoff from The Batman has the feel of a good, old-fashioned mob drama with Colin Farrell as the titular crime boss who begins to make his bloody mark across Gotham City. Farrell’s performance is transformative. It’s so good that most cast members didn’t even recognize him on the set. Imagine what he could do with a whole series that could bring his take on The Penguin back to the big screen.  

The Arkham Asylum games were brilliant because they had gripping stories and a great cast that incorporated every inch of the Batman universe. This Max (formerly HBO Max) series isn’t a replication of those, but the games are worth mentioning because of the great potential that Gotham’s gallery of crazies presents. This series sounds like an exciting take on Batman’s universe since former showrunner Matt Reeves described it as “a horror movie or a haunted house that is Arkham.” Our name will be at the top of the patient visitors’ list.

The Flash introduced a new Supergirl played by Sasha Calle. It’s not yet known if she’ll get to don the cape for future projects, but the story seems to have set her up for her own Supergirl film. This film is based on the comic series of the same name in which we learn Kara’s origin story on Krypton. It’s bound to be a darker-than-usual tale since she witnesses the collapse of her home planet.

Director Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing in 1982 had its charms, but it really didn’t capture the essence of the green protector of “the green.” Director James Mangold, the critically acclaimed filmmaker behind Logan, Ford v. Ferrari, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, has us excited to see his Swamp Thing movie because he wants to make it a true horror adventure that makes the hero work on the big screen.  

TV and movies can’t have enough stories based on the works of Neil Gaiman. The first season of The Sandman on Netflix, based on Gaiman’s brilliant graphic novel about “The King of Dreams,” left us wanting more, and thankfully, Netflix and DC Studios are bringing them back for another season. It may take a while since Gaiman has said the only things they have so far are the scripts.

The Harley Quinn animated series is one of the few remaining survivors of DC’s streaming platform. The Harley Quinn cartoons are the Deadpool of the DC franchise in which Joker’s ex teams up with Poison Ivy and a variety of Batman’s fourth-tier villains. The writing is sharp, hilarious, and uncompromising, and it’s been confirmed that it will be back on Max for a fourth season.

The Harley Quinn show is such a big hit that it’s starting to inspire spinoffs, starting with this starting vehicle for Kite Man. Noonan’s refers to the villain bar that Kite Man and his special lady Golden Glider buy in Gotham City. Think of it as a Rogues Gallery meets Cheers kind of vibe with the kind of humor you’ve come to expect from a DC animated sitcom.

Abrams and Reeves are also helming this TV series that aims to bring back the feel and atmosphere of the brilliant Batman: The Animated Series from the '90s. For some reason, Max passed on the show while it was in production, but it sounds like the kind of Batman we grew up watching after school with a whole new cast and creators.

We’re sorely missing Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. The first Aquaman film is a breathtaking, epic adventure with wit, charm, and style, and a sequel is finally underway with Saw director James Wan helming the production. We’re also very intrigued by some of the choices Wan is making, like giving the film a horror bent inspired by the cult film Planet of the Vampires. You had us at Aquaman (maybe) fighting underwater vampires.

If anyone deserves another chance, it’s the Green Lantern. The Ryan Reynolds movie that bombed so hard it became a post-plot joke in Deadpool 2 has made it very hard for a DC universe to even get the green light. Now we’re getting a full TV series that Gunn described as a detective story featuring Hal Jordan and all other Lanterns across the universe.