Aquaman may have been the only live-action DC movie released in 2018, a change of pace from the two movies we got in 2016 and 2017, but that didn’t make the year any less exciting. Shazam, Wonder Woman 1984, and Joker were all filmed this year and there were plenty of set photos and videos to go around. We also got trailers for Aquaman and Shazam, but the drama surrounding Justice League and Zack Snyder’s cut is what most Batman News readers were interested in.
Before we get ready for more exciting news next year, let’s take a look back at the biggest stories of 2018. Below is a list of the most popular articles that were published on Batman News, based on web traffic.
- Rumor: Really bad DC Extended Universe news is on the way
- In late February, movie pundit John Campea claimed to have heard really bad news regarding the DCEU. Campea wouldn’t say what it was, but was confident that it was "100% true” and would leak out at some point. To my knowledge, we still don’t know exactly what Campea was referring to. The only news we got in 2018 that would fit Campea’s description was the September report from The Hollywood Reporter that said Warner Bros. and Henry Cavill were parting ways on Superman.
- ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ trailer: this is why Superman looked silly in ‘Justice League’
- This one definitely surprised me. In February after the Super Bowl, I decided to share the first trailer for Mission: Impossible -- Fallout in the “Culture” section. This was our first look at Henry Cavill and his mustache in action, which created a huge issue during Justice League reshoots and lead to Warner Bros. using visual effects to cover it up. Thanks to a lot of traffic from Google, this was the #2 story of the year.
- Here’s why ‘Justice League’ had a random Russian family
- Joss Whedon was brought in to rewrite some of Justice League for reshoots in the summer of 2017. Some fans felt that the scenes with the Russian family that were added in felt a little random and out of place. Thanks to an interview with Joss Whedon in April, it became crystal clear as to why he included the Russian family in Justice League. In short, Whedon wanted to focus on civilians to give the audience people to worry about while superpowered heroes were fighting superpowered villains.
- Over 35 photos from Zack Snyder’s cut of ‘Justice League’ released
- The Justice League Blu-ray was released in March and with it came over 35 photos courtesy of the WB Movies All Access app. As with a lot of the marketing, many of the photos were from the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League and gave us a look at deleted scenes that never made it into the theatrical cut.
- ‘Justice League’ deleted Superman scene reveals his black costume (video)
- In February to promote the March release of the Justice League Blu-ray, Warner Bros. released a clip of a deleted Superman scene from Zack Snyder’s original cut. It featured Hans Zimmer’s iconic Man of Steel score, a CGI-less and mustache-less Henry Cavill, and the black Superman costume.
As we look ahead, there’s a lot to get excited about in 2019. Birds of Prey starts shooting in January, and Shazam and Joker will be hitting theaters in April and October. There’s a good chance we’re going to finally hear who is playing Batman in The Batman, since director Matt Reeves has stated that he hopes the movie will start shooting by the summer. Plus we’ll have plenty of trailers to look forward to for Shazam, Wonder Woman 1984, Joker, and Birds of Prey. And if 2018 taught us anything, it’s that 2019 will be full of surprises as well!
