Warner Bros. has officially abandoned an untitled DC movie that was set to release in theaters later this year.
DC plans to release four movies this year including the already-out Shazam! Fury of the Gods, June’s The Flash, August’s Blue Beetle, and December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. These come on top of a date for an untitled DC movie to release on September 22 that has been on the schedule since October 2022.
It’s common practice for studios to mark out untitled movie release dates years in advance to fill with unannounced projects or ones it has yet to even decide on. This is particularly true in the franchise space, with Disney having multiple untitled Marvel and Star Wars dates still left empty for 2025 and beyond.
DC Abandons Mystery 2023 Movie
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has made a slew of updates to its upcoming release schedule, among them comes the removal of an untitled DC movie that was set for a theatrical release on September 22, 2023.
The mystery DC blockbuster was placed to release directly against Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables 4 which hits the same weekend.
News of the cancelation comes as no surprise given there had been no indication of any fifth DC release having filmed or being even close to being ready to release
Insider KC Walsh claimed back in October that this date would have gone to Batgirl, which was ultimately canceled as a tax write-off in August.
It’s possible the tentative date was held onto after Batgirl‘s cancelation lay claim to the weekend in case any of DC’s upcoming movies needed to shift release date.
Why DC Still Had a 2023 Mystery Movie Release Set
DC’s spare September 2023 date has been an anomaly on the slate for some time, even though it’s long been apparent it wasn’t going to amount to anything. After all, the superhero giant has shown no signs of having any non-dated projects coming at all close to production anytime soon.
Shortly, after the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) merger, the studio was said to be abandoning the original straight-to-HBO Max release plan for Batgirl in favor of a theatrical run. That shift was seemingly set to indicate a huge delay from the planned December 2022, pushing the streaming drop to a September 2023 theatrical release.
As fans now know, that didn’t end up happening as WBD’s cash problems led to Batgirl becoming a tax write-off and getting scrapped altogether. This date only became public knowledge in October while Batgirl was canceled in August, so chances are WBD had this date mapped out long before fans found out about it.
What’s far more confusing is how this date has been left on the schedule so long after Batgirl was abandoned, leaving this dangling mystery on DC’s 2023 slate. Chances are that this had nothing to do with, as many may speculate, the remaining potential of Batgirl being rescued, but rather a simple admin oversight.
DC’s next movie will be The Flash which hits theaters on June 16.
