It was reported yesterday via The Hollywood Reporter that Zack Snyder’s “Justice League 2” has been pushed back to make room for Ben Affleck’s “The Batman” movie, which is yet to solidify a release date.

After wrapping Justice League, Snyder is not tackling Justice League 2, as was the initial plan, but rather is focusing his attention on his long-in-development thriller The Last Photograph.

Snyder is still intent on directing Justice League 2, but that movie has been pushed back to make room for Ben Affleck’s Batman stand-alone movie. The move left an opening in Snyder’s schedule for a production that is smaller-scale, at least compared to massive superhero tentpoles he has been working on of late.

This news isn’t really earth-shattering as we all knew that the original plan for “Justice League 2” was scrapped in response to the poor critical reviews of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Right now, everything is solely predicated on what happens with “Wonder Woman” and “Justice League” and if these two upcoming films are both financialyl successful, and the critics/audiences embrace the new direction of the DCEU under Geoff Johns, then we should begin to hear that other films in the DCEU will get the green light, i.e. Justice League 2, Man Of Steel 2, Green Lantern, Teen Titans and many more.

The only confirmed movie post “Justice League” is “Aquaman.” Yes we know that the upcoming “The Flash” film is somewhere in that mix, but without a director and no news on that front, it is a safe bet that the movie’s release date is more than likely going to be pushed back.

So where does this leave Zack Snyder? Will he be back in the chair to make “Justice League 2” after helming his long gestating project “The Last Photograph?” Like it was said previously, everything is predicated on the success of both “WW” and “Justice League”, and if the latter is successful at the box office and the critics love it, then yes, we here at Shanlian On Batman believe that Snyder and company will be back in the director’s chair with JL2. If these films are not successful, then Zack Snyder will remain on in some sort of Executive Producer role. There were many casualties at the studio after “BvS” tanked hard with the critics and the studio tried a quick course correction. Remember Charles Roven? He was the producer who helped produce The Dark Knight Trilogy, Man of Steel and BvS and was just a few of the people who had the keys to the DCEU taken away.

For some of you that think that Snyder wants these movies to tank, let me fill you in on something that needs to be known for you all: Snyder’s Cruel and Unusual Pictures helps co-finance these films in the DCEU they put up their own money to help produce these movies. So that means the rate of return for the Snyder’s is predicated on the success of all of these films. So if the film is successful the Snyder’s and the studio is successful as well. So it is in their best interest to put out the best product that they can, so when we hear that Snyder is just throwing things on the wall to see what sticks is nonsense, trust us, these guys want all these films to be successful both commercially and critically.

So what does this mean for the upcoming solo Ben Affleck Batman film? For starters, Batman is the crown jewel of the superhero film genre and a sure fire box office juggernaut for the studio so getting this film into theaters quickly is something that the studio really wants. It wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to see that film pop up July of 2018 now that the “Aquaman” film was pushed back a few months to October of 2018. For purely sentimental reasons, it could pop up in July 2018 as that would be the 10 Year anniversary of The Dark Knight. That would be great cross promotion for a future “10 Year Anniversary” Blu Ray/DVD release to co-incide with the release of “The Batman” as well. Now that is simply a pipe-dream for us, but who knows stranger things have happened.

So let’s recap, Batman is being pushed up and JL2 is waiting on the successes of “Wonder Woman” and “Justice League” so now that 2017 is almost upon us, it will be an interesting year to see how everything pans out.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter