Despite speculation about a delay, “Justice League – Part 1” will start production on April 11 under the direction of Zack Snyder, the comic book-loving filmmaker behind “300,” “Watchmen,” “Man of Steel” and WB’s upcoming “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
Entertainment Weekly first reported the official start date as part of a larger feature on Snyder, who has spent years establishing a cinematic universe where superheroes can exist, and mapping out the future of that action-packed world.
In “Batman v Superman,” the title characters do battle after the mass destruction caused by Superman’s fight with General Zod in “Man of Steel.” Stars Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill are joined by Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, who gets her own movie next year.
Those three superheroes will reunite in “Justice League – Part 1,” which will co-star Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as the Flash and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. It’s unclear whether any of Batman’s villains from “Suicide Squad,” such as the Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), will appear in “Justice League,” but the door remains open.
The first “Justice League” movie will swoop into theaters on November 17, 2017. From there, Aquaman and The Flash will star in their own standalone movies in 2018, before Snyder returns for the 2019 release “Justice League – Part 2.”
Cyborg and the still-uncast Green Lantern are slated for standalone movies in 2020, while WB is expected to make room on its release calendar for a standalone Batman movie starring and possibly directed by Affleck.
There’s also a “Shazam!” movie starring Dwayne Johnson as the villainous Black Adam that is planned for 2019, but it’s unclear whether that will be set in the same cinematic universe as other DC Comics titles.
The “Justice League” movies may not shoot back-to-back like other WB tentpoles like “The Matrix” and “The Hobbit,” but the first film will be shot at the Warner Bros. Leavesden studios in southeast England, as well as various locations around London and in Iceland.