'Wonder Woman 2' Premiere Date Was Just Pushed Back, So Fans Are Going To Be Pissed

The hits just keep on coming for Warner Brothers as it tries to find what works in the DC Extended Universe. For a minute it seemed to have regained its footing after the disaster that was Justice League at the end of 2017. Wonder Woman was a bonafide phenomenon, Aquaman has good early buzz, and the production powerhouse scooped up James Gunn to take over Suicide Squad 2, hopefully improving it after the first one's critical drubbing. But today brings news of a step back, as the Wonder Woman 2 premiere date falls back, out of the 2019 release year window altogether and into 2020.

This is the second time Wonder Woman's sequel, currently called Wonder Woman 1984, has had to move around the movie release calendar. Initially, it was scheduled for Dec 20, 2019. But then Disney up and moved Star Wars' Episode IX from May of 2019 back smack into December, putting it right on the 20th, in the same window as Episodes VII and VIII. Wonder Woman's strong, but she's not going to withstand what has been the death star of franchise releases, so Warner Brothers backed up the premiere date to Nov. 1, 2019.

However, this was a strange move. November is a crowded field. Wonder Woman's original hit window worked as a summer release, giving audiences three months of vacation to catch the film multiple times. So Warner Brothers made the sensible decision to go back to it, setting the new date as June 5, 2020.

Star Gal Gadot tweeted out the new (and hopefully final) release date this week, with wording that suggests this was something the production pushed the DC Extended Universe heads to do this, and not the other way around. It would make sense, as Warner Brothers would be more in favor of striking while the iron is hot, while director Patty Jenkins would probably prefer the extra time to tinker with the effects and editing.

This does put the DC Extended Universe in a bit of a pickle for 2019 though. Way back in 2016, 2019 would have been the point where Justice League: Part 2 came out. It was also for a while where Flashpoint, a standalone Flash movie was scheduled for release.

Now, with no Justice League 2 planned and Flashpoint delayed until 2020 or 2021 (if it ever happens), all Warner Brothers has on the schedule for next year is Shazam and the Joker movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix. The latter is confirmed to not even be in the same universe as the rest of the films, and the former has hedged about its connections. If both turn out to be stand-alone creations, this will mean there are zero films next year from the DCEU's interconnected series.

But for fans of Wonder Woman, the wait may be long for 1984, but the extra time will most likely be worth it. Wonder Woman 1984 arrives in theaters on June 5, 2020. Let's hope there it will stay.