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Black Adam! Batgirl! Flash! Keaton’s Batman! Here’s a round-up of all the DCEU rumours

September 15th, 2022 by Marc Comments

It looks like the DCEU is in for some big changes and returns in the coming years if these new rumours are to be believed.

We’ve been watching these little bits of news and rumours float around for a while now, so we thought it would be a good time to pull it all together and see if we get an idea of what it all means.

During SDCC a few weeks back, Dwayne Johnson, star of Black Adam, was asked about Henry Cavill’s Superman and he commented that: “Henry [Cavill] is a buddy and he is a phenomenal Superman and Henry Cavill is the Superman of our generation, with respect to the other Supermans in the past.”

Well, it seems that Black Adam may be where the new DCEU kicks off, with rumours being that since it releases this year with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Shazam! Fury of the Gods both moved (here) we’re hearing to make sure they fit in better with the new direction Warner Bros/DC have planned.

Johnson has always been a fan of getting Cavill’s Superman back in the DCEU as he has long wanted to go toe-to-toe with him on the big screen. We had heard a a scene was planned for Black Adam where Suicide Squad boss Amanda Waller, played by Viola Davis, who is confirmed for the movie, approaching Superman to go and stop Adam; originally we would not have seen Superman’s face – a regular occurrence now in things like Shazam! and PEacemaker – but we’re now hearing that Cavill has filmed a new scene for Black Adam!

We’ll talk some more about black Adam later…

This flies in the face of rumours that also state that WB reached out to Cavill about returning to the role but the actor is no longer interested (here), however, this cannot be confirmed and we’re hearing much more about him returning than about him not wanting to.

The most exciting rumours state that Cavill and Ben Affleck are both back long-term, presumably for the duration of the new WB ten-year-plan, and that after the events of The Flash movie, the DCEU will be reset in so far as Justice League and certain events didn’t happen and we would see Affleck’s Batman, Momo’s Aquaman and Cavill’s Superman coming together to form an all-new Justice League.

We can assume Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman will be in this new Justice League, especially as new rumours suggest that she will have an extended role in Shazam! Fury of the Gods which has been confirmed as wrapped a few days ago by director David F Sandberg who also confirmed that, even though it’s now been pushed back from December to March next year, no additional filming was needed and that they will not be making any changes to the movie as it’s already ‘in the can’.

On top of this, in a recent interview about the DCEU’s future, Momoa said he and Gadot are safe and running the DCEU: “I’ve been there forever. It’s me and Wonder Woman [Gal Gadot]. I’m there. I’m the longest-running, you know what I mean? It’s me and Wonder Woman who’s running that place.”

If he’s right, it looks like the core four are here to stay.

Affleck’s return was already known as he was announced as being back to film additional scenes for the Aquaman sequel – more on this in minute – but now we’re hearing that he is also filming additional scenes for The Flash (here) which, after Ezra Miller apologised for being public enemy number one, is back on track and will be released at some stage.

The additional scenes for The Flash make sense as we know that events in that movie will now likely be changed… let’s try to break it down.

So, we know that Batgirl movie was cancelled and will likely never see light of day now and we know there’s a myriad of reasons for this with early reviews being lacklustre but we can assume that part of this was because of the changes WB now have planned for the DCEU.

See, in the Flash originally, Ben Affleck’s Batman would appear early on and after The Flash (Miller) changes time, Affleck would be replaced with Michael Keaton’s Batman who would be the Batman of the DCEU for the foreseeable future, helping to put together a new Justice League with Leslie Grace’s Batgirl and Sasha Calle – who will debut in The Flash – as Supergirl. However, this plot has now been changed and it looks like the powers that be now want Affleck to stay as Batman.

Speaking of The Flash, we may have a sneak peek at the score for the new movie courtesy of composer Benjamin Wallfisch who surprised director Andy Muschietti on his birthday a few days ago:

Anyway, where were we?

Keaton’s role in Batgirl would establish that Affleck is gone, with Roberto Gonzalez reporting: “I asked how Keaton is in it at least, and I was told he was good. He’s playing Bruce Wayne/Batman age-appropriate, he’s got white hair when he’s Bruce Wayne. And the kicker here is that his Batman is ‘retired.’ But he obviously pops in to help and advise Barbara Gordon (Leslie Grace). But he’s not really that much in it, but he has a presence when he’s in it, and it’s sort of a pivotal cameo when he pops in and out.”

But now that Batgirl is gone – and it really is gone as even the directors cannot get at the footage they filmed, with co-director Bilall Fallah saying: “We have nothing! Adil [Adil El Arbi, second co-director] called me and said, ‘Go ahead, shoot some things on your cellphone.’ I went on the server and everything was blocked!” – it means that Keaton’s Batman has to be re-replaced by Affleck, hence the new scenes on The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. We know Keaton was previously in both movies but now we assume that at the end of The Flash, events are changed to the extent that Affleck will return and, as we said above, will head off, in this new continuity, to form the Justice League with Superman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Who will be playing The Flash and Cyborg at this stage is still to be confirmed.

Interestingly, Momoa, who broke the news initially about Affleck returning in the Aquaman sequel, has now teased that there might be more than one Batman in the movie: “Well, I can’t tell you anything about the reunion. [Ben Affleck] may or may not be in it. There could be more or less or even more Batmans in it. Who knows? You will only know a little bit.”

He also promised ‘a lot of surprises’:

Could we see Keaton’s Batman in the movie become Affleck? Can we, therefore, assume that the events of Aquaman will be changed by The Flash movie during the actual story? That could be a lot of fun…

One actor who doesn’t seem too optimistic about returning is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, left: “I felt very personal about [Lex],” he says.

“The writer, Chris Terrio, is a very serious writer, and he’s a very emotional person. He thought a lot about my character, and I thought a lot about my character too. I talked with my acting coach about the character a lot, about his backstory with his father and his emotional life—and then people hate me.”

Saying that he wasn’t a big comic book fan as a kid but he enjoyed the role of Lex, he seems less than hopeful about being asked back: “I’d be shocked if I wound up in a DC movie, but it would be a pleasant shock.”

I loved his Lex and would be happy to see him back.

Anyway, we said earlier that we’d come back to Black Adam and here we are; so, it seems that – and we have guessed this when Shazam! came out – that originally the plan was to have Black Adam and Shazam! both introduced in that first movie but Johnson, who long-wanted to do an Adam movie wasn’t having it: “When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one movie,” Johnson said.

“Now that was the goal — so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.’ It would’ve been fine for Shazam having two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam.”

Hmmmmmmmm… he really thinks Adam is a bigger character than Shazam!, then? Ok.

It really looks like there are a lot of changes coming for the DCEU whether these rumours are true or not and, as a big fan of these characters, I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

Still wish we could see Batgirl though… no matter how bad.

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….