Every DC Movie and TV Show Scheduled for 2026 and Beyond

Mapping Out DC’s Next Few Years

Since taking over DC’s film and TV strategy in 2022, studio co-chairmen James Gunn and Peter Safran have rebuilt Warner Bros.’ comic-book output from the ground up. The new DC Universe officially launched in 2024 with the animated series Creature Commandos, and has since expanded into live action with Superman (2025), while a handful of pre-Gunn projects - most notably Matt Reeves’ Batman films - continue on their own separate track. Here’s every confirmed DC project currently on the calendar, from this fall through 2028 and beyond.

It hasn’t all been smooth. Gunn’s original ten-year plan for the DCU has already shifted more than once in practice, and Peacemaker - the show that bridges Gunn’s old DC work with the new universe - left fans hanging on a genuinely unresolved cliffhanger at the end of Season 2, with no confirmed Season 3 yet. That’s worth knowing going in: this is a universe still finding its final shape, not one executing a fully locked roadmap.

2026: Lanterns and Clayface

Lanterns is already airing on HBO Max, having premiered August 23. It’s an eight-episode series built as an intergalactic-cop drama rather than a straight superhero show, explicitly modeled on slow-burn mysteries like True Detective and Slow Horses - a deliberate departure from the tone of 2011’s disastrous Green Lantern film. Kyle Chandler plays a returning Hal Jordan, with Aaron Pierre as trainee John Stewart; Pierre’s Green Lantern is also confirmed to appear in next year’s Man of Tomorrow. We covered the premiere date in detail in our Lanterns HBO Max piece.

Clayface arrives in theaters October 23, and it’s the more unusual bet of the two. Director Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep) pitched DC Studios on a “horror-thriller-tragedy” take on the Batman villain that wasn’t originally part of Gunn and Safran’s plan - and it convinced them. Tom Rhys Harries stars as Matt Hagen, a movie star horribly disfigured and turned to an experimental treatment with monstrous results; James Watkins directs, with Naomi Ackie and Max Minghella rounding out the cast. It’s a genuine tonal outlier for the DCU, and worth watching for that alone.

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Superman (2025) (4K Ultra HD) (opens in a new tab)

The DCU's confident launch statement, and the film Man of Tomorrow builds directly on. Worth a rewatch before the sequel lands.

2027: Man of Tomorrow and a Very Different Kind of Spinoff

Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, lands July 9, 2027. James Gunn has described the plot as Superman and Lex Luthor forced to work together against a threat bigger than either of them - that threat appears to be Brainiac, played by Lars Eidinger. David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult return as Superman and Luthor, alongside Rachel Brosnahan, Skyler Gisondo, Isabela Merced, Milly Alcock’s Supergirl, and new additions Aaron Pierre (John Stewart/Green Lantern) and Adria Arjona, reportedly playing the villain Maxima. If you haven’t seen the first film, our review of Superman (2025) is the right place to start before the sequel adds this many new pieces to the board - the 4K release is worth having ready for a rewatch.

The stranger release on the 2027 slate is The People v. Gorilla Grodd, an eight-episode HBO mockumentary comedy - think The Office by way of American Vandal - following Daily Planet reporter Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo, again) investigating a murder case centered on a psychic gorilla accused of killing his own father. It’s a genuinely odd swing for a superhero universe to take, and a sign that Gunn’s DCU is willing to use its animated and comedic corners for more than just world-building filler.

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LEGO DC Batman: The Batman Batmobile (76332) (opens in a new tab)

Matt Reeves' Batmobile in brick form - a fitting build while the wait for The Batman Part 2 continues.

2028: The Batman Part 2 Finally Arrives

The Batman Part 2 is set for February 18, 2028, after being delayed multiple times from its original 2025 target. Robert Pattinson returns as Bruce Wayne, alongside Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb/The Penguin, joined by new cast additions Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson and Charles Dance. Worth repeating because it trips people up constantly: this film exists in Matt Reeves’ own separate continuity, entirely apart from the Gunn/Safran DCU - there’s no crossover to expect here, by design. The Reeves-era Batmobile in brick form makes a fitting shelf piece for the long wait between films.

The same year brings Dynamic Duo (June 30, 2028), an animated film from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation exploring the origins of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd - the first and second Robins - written by Matthew Aldrich (Coco, Lightyear).

Undated, But Confirmed: What’s Still Coming

A long list of projects have been confirmed without a release date attached, giving a sense of how far Gunn and Safran are planning ahead:

The Brave and the Bold will introduce Damian Wayne - Batman’s biological son and the fifth Robin - to live action for the first time, drawing on Grant Morrison’s Batman and Son run. It sits in the new DCU continuity, separate from Reeves’ Batman films.

Booster Gold is planned as a comedic TV series around the time-traveling, fame-obsessed hero, though original writer David Jenkins (Our Flag Means Death) has since said his take won’t be moving forward - the project isn’t dead, but it’s without a writer again.

Swamp Thing is a passion project for director James Mangold, though he has a Star Wars film to finish first. Mister Miracle, adapting Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ acclaimed 2017 comic, is planned as an animated series about escape artist Scott Free and his wife Big Barda. A Blue Beetle animated series focused on Jaime Reyes is in development at Warner Bros., with Miguel Puga (The Casagrandes) as showrunner.

Rounding out the confirmed-but-undated list: an untitled Wonder Woman movie (James Gunn confirmed the script was being written as of mid-2025), an untitled Teen Titans movie with a script from Supergirl writer Ana Nogueira, and an untitled Deathstroke/Bane team-up movie from screenwriter Matthew Orton (Moon Knight). None of the three has a director, cast, or date attached yet - treat all of them as early-stage.

That’s an unusually long list of undated-but-confirmed projects for a studio only a few years into a reboot, and it reflects a deliberate strategy rather than a lack of focus. Gunn has been candid that not everything on this list is guaranteed to happen in its current form - a Booster Gold series can lose its writer and stay alive, a Wonder Woman script can still be “being written” a year after it’s announced. The approach looks less like a fixed release calendar and more like a studio testing a wide slate of ideas and letting the strongest ones rise to the front of the line, which is a very different posture than the old DCEU’s habit of locking dates years in advance and then scrambling when a film wasn’t ready.

Why It Matters for Dads

The most useful thing to take from this list isn’t any single date - it’s the shape of the strategy. Gunn and Safran are running two release cadences at once: a steady drip of theatrical tentpoles (Superman, Clayface, Man of Tomorrow, The Batman Part 2) alongside genuinely experimental TV and streaming projects (Lanterns’ slow-burn mystery format, The People v. Gorilla Grodd’s mockumentary comedy) that wouldn’t have fit in the old DCEU’s more rigid, film-first structure. That’s a meaningfully different bet than Marvel’s Phase 1-style approach, and it means family movie nights and after-the-kids-are-in-bed viewing are being served by genuinely different corners of the same universe rather than one tone stretched across everything.

For planning actual viewing: Clayface is body horror, not a family pick, despite the comic-book branding. Man of Tomorrow is shaping up as the DCU’s most family-friendly theatrical release next year, in keeping with Superman (2025). Everything else on this list is too early-stage to plan around - which is exactly why it’s worth bookmarking rather than acting on today.

What is the next DC Studios movie to release?

Clayface, a body-horror origin story directed by James Watkins from a script by Mike Flanagan, arrives in theaters October 23, 2026.

When does The Batman Part 2 come out?

February 18, 2028. It has been delayed multiple times from an original 2025 target, with Robert Pattinson returning as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Is the new DCU connected to the old DCEU or Matt Reeves' Batman films?

No to both. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe (Superman, Creature Commandos, Peacemaker, Lanterns, Man of Tomorrow) is a full reboot with no continuity link to the 2013-2023 DCEU. Matt Reeves’ The Batman and The Batman Part 2 sit in their own separate continuity, deliberately outside the new DCU.