Okay, so DC’s biggest project in the spotlight has given us a good news and a bad news. Wonder Woman 1984 is currently under production and it is right on schedule, and there is no problem of any kind. WB saw a very profitable film back in 2017 led by their greatest female Superhero, and not just that, Wonder Woman actually became the first critical success, so it was a no-brainer that they were going to fast-track a sequel very soon. And it turned out that WW84 was greenlit for a November 1, 2019 release. It would have been the third movie to come out in 2019, but now it’s not!
Everything was going fine, 2019 was going to be the biggest year for Superhero movies, and then one big name drops out of the year. Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot took to Twitter to announce that Wonder Woman has been pushed back to its original month of release, and now the film is coming out on June 5, 2020. Director Patty Jenkins also backed her tweet by saying:
Now, this is bad news when it comes to the audiences who were looking forward to a year with 3 DC movies. Everything seemed really sorted. WB seemed to have picked up the pace for their shared Universe, as they were bringing out Aquaman more than a year after their last film which was Justice League. But from there on out, we had Shazam! to follow in less than 5 months of time. And then they added a new Joker movie in October with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead, but we shouldn’t consider that as much because it is in a different continuity than the “DCEU.”
The Worlds of DC would have been continued by WW84, and then just 3 months after that, we would have had the Birds of Prey movie starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. So that would have meant 4 DC Extended Universe movies in just 13-14 months, and a total of 5 DC movies within that span of time. DC would have really given Marvel a run for their money this time, as every upcoming project has a high profitability because of the minimal budgets involved. But now that WW84 gets pushed back, we are again left with just one DCEU movie coming out in 2019.
The pace for the shared universe drops yet again. While we as fans may be disappointed a little, it is actually a smart move played by WB if you think about it. The first reason as hinted by Gal Gadot herself was that Wonder Woman turned out to be highly successful in its original release month which was June, so why try a new month of release altogether. The second matter of consideration is that 2019 is the year of massive competition, and the November 1 release date would have had the movie face a lot of heat from other movies.
November-December is the time for big-budget movies, and Wonder Woman 1984 would have gone up against the upcoming Terminator 6, Joker (which is coming out just one month before and is from the same studio), and then the big name of Star Wars Episode IX might have bogged the film down in the longer run. So pushing it back to a month where you have already been successful and getting away from the massive competition is the definite smart choice.
Also, with the Flash movie getting pushed to 2021, WB surely needed another big name project in 2020. Another major play of smartness by WB was that Marvel actually dropped their July 31, 2020 film out of their release schedule, so there is no huge competition in the June release date.
The only competition that the film could face would be from the Marvel movie (Doctor Strange 2) coming out on May 1, but there is a month’s worth of cushioning, so that is manageable. Apart from that, there is only Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, which should not be considered as that big of a competition.
So, long summary short, Warner Bros. decided that it is in the best interest for everyone if Wonder Woman 1984 comes out in June 2020, instead of November 2019. The delay has been well thought of, and it is not because of any problems behind the scenes, it is just a good move to make.
