Producer Charles Roven – known for his work on a range of DC films including The Dark Knight trilogy, Zack Snyder's Justice League, and Wonder Woman – has said that the next Justice League movie is likely going to be "a number of years away."
Speaking in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Roven spoke about his ties to future DC projects, which would likely include more Suicide Squad and Justice League films should they happen. Roven says that he believes his future work would probably take him as far as another Justice League movie:
"If it was a Batman-involved product like Batman v Superman or Justice League, I would be involved in those," Roven said. Suicide Squad, I would be involved in those, up until a certain amount. And that is kind of where we are. […] But [I] still have an affiliation with some more Suicide Squads, which I’m thrilled about. I hope James will, when he’s got some time, come back and see if he’s going to do another one of these, because he did such an amazing job. I would definitely be a part of that. Probably another Justice League, although I think that’s a number of years away."
If we did see a new Justice League movie, it's unlikely to be Zack Snyder's take on a sequel. The outspoken director has already explained the plot of his planned Justice League 2 and 3 (including Superman's son becoming Batman), but made very clear that he thinks Warner Bros. won't let him make them, saying the studio is "aggressively anti-Snyder."
Justice League debuted in 2017 and, since then, the DCEU has produced five subsequent films (six if you include Zack Snyder's Justice League). However, most of those subseqeunt movies have largely focused on individual character stories as opposed to crossover events within the DC universe, with solo movies for Wonder Woman, Shazam, Harley Quinn, and Aquaman.
Based on the current slate of movies, the DC universe will continue to flesh out more of its iconic heroes. In 2022, The Flash and Black Adam will get solo movies, while sequels for Aquaman and Shazam are also in the works. It remains to be seen if and when fans will see a return to the Justice League, but if Roven's comments are anything to go by I wouldn't be scouring the internet for film trailers anytime soon.
DC's most recent project, The Suicide Squad, was released last week, but has had a lacklustre opening weekend at the box office. Despite wide praise from audiences and critics (check out our review of the film here), the film opened to $26.5 million in theatres – a figure lower than the industry expectation that it would generate around $30 million. It may not all be doom and gloom for the film's unlikely heroes though – The Suicide Squad's box office numbers likely don't tell the full story for the film's release, which also premiered on HBO Max at the same time.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN who often debates which DC superhero he'd choose to be. You can follow him on Twitter to tell him why The Flash is the wrong choice.