Whereas The Flash was offered because the movie that might remodel the previous DC Prolonged Universe into the brand new cinematic universe that’s at the moment in improvement at Warner Bros., that was by no means fairly true. The truth is, two extra DCEU motion pictures are nonetheless coming to theaters earlier than the tip of 2023. Blue Beetle arrives subsequent month and the Aquaman sequel, Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom, will lastly put the DCEU out of its distress in December.

Or possibly the film’s launch will put the movie itself out of its distress, as in line with a brand new report, the sequel has had a protracted and troublesome post-production, together with poor take a look at screenings and a minimum of three (sure, three) rounds of reshoots. Even in an period when most blockbusters plan on one set of reshoots even earlier than manufacturing begins, that could be a very excessive quantity.

READ MORE: What The Flash’s Flopping Means For DC’s Future

In accordance with The Hollywood Reporter, a lot of the uncertainty and adjustments are the results of the film being greenlit by one regime at Warner Bros. however completed by one other. Every totally different group of executives have had their very own plans about DC’s future, and when the executives modified, so did the position that Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom performed within the broader DC plan.

One huge sticking level, per THR, was what position, if any Batman would serve within the movie…

[Former DC Films chief Walter] Hamada needed Michael Keaton’s model of the character to be akin to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury within the Marvel motion pictures — an elder statesman who might pop up in numerous movies, together with the now-shelved Batgirl, in addition to The Misplaced Kingdom. However shifting launch dates muddled issues. At one level, The Misplaced Kingdom was set to open in March 2023, a number of months earlier than Keaton’s return in June 2023’s The Flash. So in late July 2022, two months after Abdy and DeLuca took over Warners, Ben Affleck joined a spherical of reshoots as Bruce Wayne, to interchange a scene Keaton shot. However then the film was moved once more, this time to after Flash, placing Affleck’s look in query.

In accordance with their sources, within the newest model of the film, neither Batman makes an look. So the film shot two fairly main Batman cameos by two totally different Darkish Knights, and neither will apparently make the ultimate minimize. That’s wild.

The piece claims the newest spherical of reshoots befell final month in New Zealand, and supposedly went “nicely.” It additionally states the truth that Warners continues to be prepared to spend cash on reshoots suggests they imagine the movie shall be successful; in the event that they thought it was a misplaced trigger, they’d probably simply cease attempting to enhance it and say sufficient is sufficient.

It’s additionally value noting that the primary Aquaman is, considerably surprisingly, the highest-grossing film DC has ever made. So there’s loads driving on the sequel, even when it’s the final time we’ll see the DCEU for the foreseeable future. Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom is scheduled to open in theaters on December 20.