The DC Extended Universe may have only existed for a little over seven years and eight movies, with another six hopefully set for release before the end of 2022 barring any more unforeseen circumstances, but during that time Warner Bros. has also announced a whole host of projects and then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with them. October 2014, in particular, can be pinpointed as the moment the studio made it clear that they hadn't settled on a unified creative approach to the franchise, with ten movies being confirmed to be heading to the big screen on the same day.
As of yet, only four of them have actually been made, and the next one out of the gate will be The Batman in March 2022, albeit in a very different form to how it was first envisioned.
Plastic Man
In December 2018, relatively unknown writer Amanda Idoko was tasked to write a script based on the cult DC Comics hero Plastic Man, over a decade after the Wachowskis had first toyed with the idea of bringing Patrick O'Brian's malleable alter ego to the big screen.
Almost two years later, and that remains the extent of the information about Plastic Man's development, besides the confirmation that it would be a comedic action-adventure. As a genuine cult hero among comic book aficionados, the character would be a great fit for a breezy superhero romp if the correct talent was assembled, and if a light touch was applied to the material.
Gotham City Sirens
Months before Suicide Squad was released, David Ayer was set to stick around the DCEU for a while longer and move straight onto Gotham City Sirens, a female-driven spinoff that would introduce Poison Ivy and Catwoman into the mix alongside Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn.
Tomb Raider and Captain Marvel co-writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet was on scripting duties, and Jared Leto was confirmed to be returning as the Joker. That was before Suicide Squad was released to general apathy from fans and critics alike, with Ayer's involvement in the franchise being swiftly swept under the rug as the studio instead focused their attention on Birds of Prey and James Gunn's soft reboot The Suicide Squad.
Lobo
Ever since he made his comic book debut in 1983, Lobo has been the living definition of a cult favorite character. Warner Bros. had been trying to put a live-action movie together since as early as 2009, but numerous filmmakers failed to crack the story.
Dwayne Johnson was briefly attached to star in 2012, while Guy Ritchie and Brad Peyton were both set to direct at one stage before things fell apart. The last we heard from Lobo was in early 2018 when Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs was rewriting his draft of the script to drastically lower the budget, as Michael Bay of all people became the latest director to enter negotiations.
Nightwing
The Lego Movie's Chris McKay was confirmed to be directing Nightwing in February 2017, with Ozark creator Bill Dubuque writing the script in what was an excitingly unusual blend of talents. A year later, McKay claimed that the final draft was close to being submitted to the studio, but after that, it's been complete radio silence for the last two and a half years.
Dick Grayson can currently be seen getting the dark and gritty treatment on Titans, which might be the reason why a solo movie has stalled, but as the most popular iteration of a beloved character, there's definitely a place for Nightwing in the mythology as the DCEU's multiverse expands rapidly.
Deadshot
Will Smith headlining his own superhero movie sounds like an opportunity that's too good to pass up, and fans were looking forward to the idea of Deadshot flying solo after he was one of the undoubted highlights of the otherwise disappointing Suicide Squad.
The former Fresh Prince confirmed in September 2018 that he would be back for the standalone blockbuster, only to seemingly drop out of the DCEU for good when Deadshot was recast with Idris Elba for The Suicide Squad. That being said, the studio hastily revised their decision and had Elba playing an entirely different character instead, presumably leaving the door wide open for Smith to return in the future.
Green Lantern Corps
One of the many movies announced on that fateful day in October 2014, Green Lantern Corps was set to be the mega-budget sci-fi extravaganza that would finally erase the memory of the infamous Ryan Reynolds bomb from the public consciousness for good.
The reboot was even given a release date of July 2020, and described by Warner Bros. as 'Lethal Weapon in space'. The idea of an intergalactic buddy cop movie is a very exciting one, but Green Lantern Corps soon found itself trapped in the clutches of development hell, and the next Green Lantern project out of the gate will be Greg Berlanti's HBO Max series instead.
Justice League Part II
There have been enough column inches dedicated to the Justice League debacle at this stage to avoid going over it again, but the DCEU's epic all-star team was originally set to star in two crossover movies, with the second set to be released in the summer of 2019.
Obviously, that didn't happen, and three years later we're still waiting to see Zack Snyder's original vision for Justice League, but if the Snyder Cut turns out to be the massive success that everyone at Warner Bros. is expecting it to be then it can't be definitively ruled out just yet that the band could yet find themselves getting back together once again in the future.
Deathstroke
Unless Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke makes a triumphant return in the future, then the actor's portrayal of Slade Wilson could go down in history as the single most pointless character in the history of the DCEU, with his only involvement being a post-credits scene in Justice League that went absolutely nowhere.
That's a far cry from when he was set to be the villain in Ben Affleck's The Batman and play a major role in Justice League Part II, with a solo movie arriving in between. The main reason that Deathstroke will go down as a huge missed opportunity for the DCEU is that it was set to mark the Hollywood debut of Gareth Evans, the action maestro behind modern classic The Raid, who was planning on having his first major blockbuster draw inspiration from Korean noir.
Ben Affleck's The Batman
When The Batman was initially announced in October 2014, Ben Affleck was set to star, direct, co-write, and executive produce, giving him the single highest level of creative control that any actor had received on a comic book blockbuster. Almost eight years later, the movie is finally going to arrive, albeit with Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson on either side of the camera.
Affleck silenced many of the early naysayers with his performances as a world-weary and grizzled veteran take on the Dark Knight, but he was still let down by the overall quality of the projects that he'd starred in. The two-time Academy Award winner is an accomplished and acclaimed filmmaker in his own right, and whatever he had planned for his Batman movie could have been something truly special.
Man of Steel 2
Despite being the movie that launched the entire shared universe, a Man of Steel sequel has never seemed to be much of a priority for Warner Bros. Like a lot of DCEU projects that never happened, a follow-up was confirmed to be in active development in October 2014, but hasn't made it any further than that.
Matthew Vaughn, Christopher McQuarrie, and J.J. Abrams all pitched stories to the studio, but none of them were deemed worthy of receiving the green light. There was even speculation that Henry Cavill could end up being recast as Superman, but despite extending his contract there's still no sign of a sequel that the fans have made it clear thatåç they'd love to see.