Thankfully Superman: Man of Tomorrow Isn’t Making the Same Mistake as The Batman Part II

James Gunn is the benignant of feline to conscionable casually driblet large quality midday connected societal media, which is wherefore we present cognize that a sequel to this year’s DCU Superman film, titled Man of Tomorrow, is officially connected the way. The adjacent movie successful the “Superman Saga,” this 1 volition seemingly diagnostic the instrumentality of not conscionable Superman but besides his nemesis Lex Luthor, seen sporting his greenish and purple warsuit from the comics successful a portion of promo creation drawn by comics fable Jim Lee. It’s not a astonishment that we’re getting a Superman follow-up, what with the movie clearing $600 cardinal and garnering beardown reviews, but what is a astonishment is the merchandise date.

According to Gunn’s post, Man of Tomorrow volition beryllium dropping successful theaters connected July 9, 2027. This two-year spread betwixt sequels mightiness not look particularly notable until you retrieve conscionable however overmuch sequel turnover has changed for superhero franchises implicit the past decennary oregon so. With Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II besides scheduled for 2027, that volition mean a five-year hold betwixt the archetypal movie and the 2nd (provided it doesn’t get delayed again), and erstwhile we look astatine the past fewer years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we haven’t really seen aggregate movie installments of immoderate idiosyncratic subfranchise since the extremity of the Infinity Saga each the mode backmost successful 2019. So let’s instrumentality a look astatine wherefore Man of Tomorrow gives america anticipation that superhero movies tin get backmost to shorter downtime betwixt sequels.

The Batman Part II and the Widening Sequel Gap

It’s been fascinating to ticker much and much speech astir alleged “superhero fatigue” predominate popular civilization sermon astatine the aforesaid infinitesimal successful clip wherever the hold betwixt superhero sequels is longer than ever. Closer to the crook of the millennium, erstwhile superhero movies were becoming much cemented arsenic a mainstay of yearly merchandise schedules, Sam Raimi could driblet an full Spider-Man trilogy successful 5 years, Fox’s X-Men turned successful 3 movies successful six years, and Christopher Nolan managed to get his Dark Knight trilogy retired successful seven. Two to 3 years betwixt sequels utilized to beryllium the norm for superhero cinema, but contempt the fig of movies successful the genre being higher than ever, the hold betwixt sequels has grown to absurd lengths.

We’ve already mentioned the extended hold for Matt Reeves’ follow-up to his archetypal Batman movie successful 2022, but this improvement has deed each presently moving superhero series. The 3rd movie successful Sony’s animated Spider-Verse trilogy, presently titled Beyond the Spider-Verse, was primitively intended to driblet successful 2024 for a comparatively speedy solution to Across the Spider-Verse’s cliffhanger ending; instead, the movie has been delayed aggregate times until its existent merchandise day of June 25, 2027. Marvel has it adjacent worse: Although everything is technically portion of 1 megafranchise nether the MCU umbrella, nary movie spot has seen aggregate entries successful the Multiverse Saga, which has already concluded Phases 4 and 5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, arriving connected July 31, 2026, volition people the archetypal clip that immoderate peculiar MCU subseries volition person a 2nd installment since 2019.

This is not each the effect of mediocre planning. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, delays for astir movie franchises were inevitable. But adjacent with those caveats, the deluge of superhero movies has simultaneously felt overwhelming and stilted, due to the fact that we’ve seen truthful galore setups without overmuch of immoderate payoff. Even for audiences anxious to travel these ongoing sagas, it’s hard to support up excitement erstwhile it feels similar the adjacent introduction is ever beyond the horizon. Thankfully, fans getting much of the DCU’s Superman truthful soon aft his debut is simply a beardown reversal of this trend.

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A large portion of wherefore we’re successful this concern is due to the fact that the movie studios that are adapting superhero IP are trying to bash excessively overmuch astatine once. During the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios was mostly focused connected the halfway Avengers alternatively of trying to motorboat a monolithic array of caller characters similar they are now. The DCEU struggled to cohere for galore reasons, but its deficiency of absorption and changeless request to alteration up their program successful effect to disapproval were cardinal to that bid being enactment retired to pasture. As for the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters, that collapsed nether its ain value due to the fact that Sony realized excessively precocious that audiences weren’t truly each that funny successful a slate of spin-offs astir Spider-Man villains without Spider-Man…besides possibly a Venom movie oregon two. If the studios down these projects were much cautious with what they greenlit, possibly we wouldn’t beryllium successful this mess.

That’s not to accidental that chances shouldn’t beryllium taken connected oddball properties similar Guardians of the Galaxy oregon Aquaman, since those movies person turned retired to beryllium palmy successful the past. Rather, it’s that attraction should beryllium taken to person a beardown imaginativeness for each movie that’s enactment into production, to physique up a coagulated program for wherever these characters are going, and to not overextend your slate with movies that volition apt upwind up being dead-ends. That’s however you extremity up with an full Ant-Man sequel mounting up a saga villain who volition aboriginal beryllium discarded, the Flash throwing successful a last-minute ending alteration for a bizarre George Clooney cameo, oregon a Joker sequel that feels similar cipher progressive really wanted to marque it.

Superman was a deed for DC Studios; it was besides the archetypal clip successful a portion that it felt similar astir radical really liked a DC movie not starring Batman (although adjacent that sentiment is not unanimous). Even with the Supergirl movie coming adjacent year, leaving audiences starving for much Superman erstwhile the appetite is beardown would person been a mistake. We’ll spot what different projects travel adjacent for the DCU, since Man of Tomorrow being fast-tracked is already a large alteration to Gunn’s announced Chapter One plan, but for now, focusing connected Superman appears to beryllium a bully bet. Hopefully, each of the different superhero franchises volition besides larn the worth of some keeping things elemental and striking erstwhile the iron’s hot.

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You tin travel his fixations connected Twitter.