The Dustbin of cancelled comic book films

Hollywood announces movies far out of proportion to the actual number of films that they make and release to the public. On this page below is information about titles that never came forth, or schedules that turned out to be tougher than the hero, constantly pushing a superhero movie to a new "start" date (when real production, and spending, on a film begins) and so on until the title finally ceased being mentioned, quietly going into what Hollywood calls "turnaround."

April 18, 2021

The Trench and New Gods shall not be made

Cancelled at Warner - story at Batman News

Pandemic wrecks the superhero movie schedule in 2020

Birds of Prey - February 7, 2020 - (This actually came out in time to not be effected by the blooming noxious flower of COVID19, but it got trashed at the box office anyway because it simply wasn't very well made.)

Bloodshot - (Originally intended for February 21) released March 13, 2020 and then re-released later on - This came out at just the right time to experience the massive shutdowns of theaters, so it quickly went to Video-On-Demand on March 24th (where it ranked number one for viewership on Amazon Prime). Then it released again via a smattering of theaters in July and then in August, though barely drawing any audience at all due to the continued fears of infection that kept theaters empty. Bloodshot finished out with a worldwide haul of $37.1 million (which puts it on par with the much bigger budgeted film Wonder Woman 1984), but the production budget of $45 million on Bloodshot meant it finally quit its theater run in deep negative territory, something which surely contributed to how Hollywood was pulling other movies off schedule in an effort to protect them from release-disaster.

The New Mutants - April 3, 2020 - August 26, 2020 - worldwide haul was $46,775,705.

Black Widow - May 1, 2020 - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule

Wonder Woman 1984 - June 5, 2020 - This film is still struggling to find some window of opportunity to get into theaters, with intentions to put it out on Hollywood's favorite desperation release date: Christmas. But even that is very much in doubt as of this writing (November 2020). UPDATE: the film came out and pulled $37 million in domestic earnings, which is terrible for a big movie, but better than nothing, and considering the conditions of the theater market, it could have been much worse.

Morbius - July 31, 2020 - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule

Venom II - Oct. 2, 2020 - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule

Eternals - Nov. 6, 2020 - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule

Films that were almost-but-not-quite-announced for a release date, but were instead mostly only on the Hollywood "dream" list:

Unknown release date Comic Book Movies

Harley Quinn (this eventually became Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Black Widow - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule
Superman Man of Steel II
Mouse Guard
Son Of Shaolin
Malignant Man
Justice League Dark
Inhumans
Suicide Squad II - this is now apparently an outright remake, or something, - see the revised 2021 superhero movie schedule
Lobo
100 Bullets
Lumberjanes
Aleister Arcane
Irredeemable
Starlight
Gambit
Booster Gold and Blue Beetle
The Sinister Six

Announced with fanfare, but never made

2016 The Amazing Spider-Man 3 (June 10, 2016) (Cancelled) (This film eventually morphed into a Sam Raimi project)
2017 The Fantastic Four 2 - not officially cancelled but presumed
2018 The Amazing Spider-Man 4 (2018) (Cancelled)

Superhero films in the 2017 cinematic future

These films below were meant to come out according to how Hollywood thought things would go in the year 2017. Most didn't happen, some are still "in production" though nobody is shooting any scenes and no actors are in front of cameras. But, some did make it (Thor, Black Panther, Avengers final, Spider-Man, Justice League, and unfortunately with very bad timing, Bloodshot.)

2017 Batman: Caped Crusaders 2
2017 Wonder Woman - June 2, 2017
2017 Bloodshot (This eventually was released twice to theaters, only to get squashed by the pandemic)
2017 Spider-Man: Homecoming - July 7, 2017
2017 Thor: Ragnarok - Nov 3, 2017
2017 Justice League - Nov 17, 2017
2018 Black Panther - Feb 16, 2018
2018 Batman IV (A Batfleck film)
2018 The Flash
2018 Gotham City Sirens
2018 Avengers: Infinity War- May 4, 2018
2018 Deadpool 2 - June 1, 2018
2018 Animated Spider-Man movie
2018 Ant-Man and the Wasp - July 6, 2018
2018 Venom - Oct 5, 2018
2018 Aquaman - Dec 21, 2018
2019 - Untitled Marvel Film - Feb 14, 2019
2019 Captain Marvel - March 8, 2019
2019 Shazam!
2019 Justice League II - iffy release date
2019 Avengers: Infinity War II - May 3, 2019 (rumored title Infinity War Gauntlet)
2019 Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 - July 5, 2019
2020 Cyborg - April 3, 2020
2020 - Untitled Marvel Film - May 1, 2020
2020 Green Lantern Corps - July 24, 2020
2020 - Untitled Marvel Film - Aug 7, 2020
2020 - Untitled Marvel Film - Nov 6, 2020