Warner Bros. in Hall H: What to expect

Warner Bros. is returning to the hallowed Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con, fresh off the DC Cinematic Universe’s first unequivocal success and ready to give nerds everywhere a look at their upcoming slate.

With Justice League hitting theaters in November, a Wonder Woman sequel expected but not yet official, Aquaman shooting already and plenty of other movies in pre-production, there’s a lot of news that Warner Bros. could bring to their panel, slated for 11:30 AM Pacific Time, Saturday July 22.

So what can we expect from the Warner Bros. Hall H panel?

Clay Enos/Warner Bros.

Justice League

Justice League hits theaters on Nov. 17, and despite Zack Snyder stepping back from directing and Joss Whedon stepping forward, the production is on track. Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg will come together to defeat the forces of Darkseid, with bonus Amazonian flashbacks (potentially).

With its last trailer in March, we can expect to get new footage from Justice League at the panel, possibly a clip that confirms what everyone already knows — that Superman is definitely in this movie.

Aquaman

Other than Justice League, Aquaman is the only DC Films movie currently in full production. Starring Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry, the half-human heir to the Atlantean throne who is known to the surface world as the superhero Aquaman, it’s due to hit theaters on Dec. 18, 2018. Other cast includes Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman.

With principal photography underway for a couple months now, San Diego Comic Con is the perfect time for Warner Bros. do debut a “first look” or behind the scenes clip from the set.

In other news

Warner Bros. Pictures

Patty Jenkins returns for a Wonder Woman sequel

It’s not all just clips and trailers, after all. With Wonder Woman an unexpected critical and box office juggernaut, all eyes are on Warner Bros. to announce the traditional superhero sequel. At the moment it seems like a follow up is in very early pre-production stages, with very little else to go on. This year’s Hall H panel may very well see confirmation that director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot will return for a second go round.

An update on Batman

Ben Affleck’s solo Batman film has had a troubled start, with Affleck seeming to waffle on taking the directorial, writing and starring roles, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Matt Reeves stepping in to direct in February. The untitled movie’s script was also reportedly canned and rewritten from scratch, although just last month, Reeves said that his vision for the film was “an almost noir-driven detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that will hopefully connect you to what’s going on inside of his head and inside of his heart.”

If we don’t hear about Affleck’s solo Batman film at San Diego Comic-Con, it will almost certainly ignite another round of speculation about the hurdles standing between the film and theaters.

More on Suicide Squad 2

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. announced that it had greenlit a Suicide Squad sequel five whole months before the film hit theaters, to an underperforming box office and lackluster critical reviews. Nevertheless, earlier this year the untitled sequel got a screenwriter.

We may see it get more, on stage in Hall H this week.

Other

Warner Bros. will undoubtedly be bringing some non-DC-related action tentpoles to Hall H — Blade Runner 2049, IT and Ready Player One for example — but without a known slate of upcoming franchise films, it’s a lot harder to predict what might make an appearance. Just know it won’t be all superheroes all the time.

Probably too soon for these ... but just maybe

Warner Bros. is in some stage of pre-production on a lot of DC-inspired films at the moment. There are some more recently announced projects that we just might hear from at the company’s panel — Joss Whedon’s Batgirl movie, the Nightwing flick from the director of The Lego Batman Movie, Gotham City Sirens — but it also might be too early for movement on those projects.

And, at a long shot, Warner Bros.’ long-floundering Flash movie might finally land a new director — something it needs pretty badly if it’s going to hit its Spring 2018 release date. I hear Lord and Miller are looking for work?