It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I feel like it's a good time to take a look at what's coming up in superhero media in the next year, now that everyone's made their schedule adjustments and we have a better idea of what's actually coming out in 2022. I'm not going to talk about every single superhero film and show coming our way, but hopefully cover enough of them to get a good sense of what the landscape looks like right now.
Let's start with the MCU, which had an okay 2021, but one with some significant ups and downs. "Black Widow" clearly suffered from being one of the first blockbusters back in theaters, "Shang-Chi" did a bit better than expected, "Eternals" had a mixed reception at best, and "Spider-man" wiped the floor with everyone. Fortunately for their pocketbooks, the MCU film slate is all sequels this year - "Doctor Strange" and "Thor" in summer, and "Black Panther" for the holidays. "Black Panther" is going to be the really interesting one because of the absence of Chadwick Boseman and some of the behind-the-scenes drama that's been going on.
The more interesting MCU media is going to be on Disney+, which is moving into series based on new characters like Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk, plus Sam Jackson will finally get top billing in a "Secret Invasion" series. "Moon Knight" is the project that I'm most looking forward to, and the one that easily could have been a feature with the talent they have onboard - Oscar Isaac as the titular Moon Knight and Ethan Hawke as the villain. Oh, and we can't forget about the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," which is expected in December, and will help set up their next sequel in 2023, or the Gael Garcia Bernal Halloween werewolf special… yeah.
Sony, meanwhile, still has "Morbius" delayed from 2020, and the highly anticipated "Spider-Verse" sequel is expected in the fall. The Venom sequel did very well for them, and we can probably expect another one somewhere down the line.
"New Mutants" is, alas, probably the end of the cinematic "X-men" universe for a while. Deadpool popped up in a "Free Guy" promo last year, but the third "Deadpool" movie remains MIA.
On to DC. They had a rough pandemic with "Wonder Woman 1984" and the surprising failure of James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" over the summer, despite strong reviews. It looks like Warners is done with "Suicide Squad" as a franchise, or they would be if it weren't for the "Peacemaker" spinoff miniseries with John Cena, that's already been prepped to premiere on HBO Max in a few weeks. I don't think we'll be seeing much of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn in the future, which is too bad.
DC is also releasing a ton of films in 2022: "The Batman" starring Robert Pattinson in March, "Black Adam" starring Dwayne Johnson in July, "The Flash," in November, and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" in December. Out of all of these, I'm looking forward to "Flash" the most, because the character has been fun in his DCEU appearances so far, and I can't resist some Tim Burton's "Batman" nostalgia. I thought "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" was further along in production, but if that's being held back to be a summer tentpole for 2023, I'm not going to complain. Oh, and there's also the "DC League of Super-Pets" animated film, which looks adorable.
Finally, I'm keeping an eye on a handful of other film projects, including the original "Secret Headquarters" with Owen Wilson at Paramount, and "Samaritan" with Sylvester Stallone at UA, which is based on graphic novels from Mythos Comics. Legendary also has their "Toxic Avenger" reboot with Peter Dinklage in the works, expected to be a comedic family film.
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