What a week this has been for the DC Extended Universe. First Justice League 2 gets pushed back in 2019 to make room for The Batman in the slate, then we get confirmations of a Harley Quinn spinoff in the form of Gotham City Sirens (along with news that a Deadshot spinoff is in development), and then we get word from Ben Affleck himself that The Batman is shooting in spring 2017, which directly conflicts with the aforementioned Justice League 2 piece.

READ: HOT RUMOR – THE BATMAN WILL START FILMING IN 2017

So what is it? What’s going on with the DC Extended Universe? What films are getting made, and most importantly, when does Warner Bros. actually plan on dropping The Batman?

Speaking with Deadline, Greg Silverman, the now former President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production and upcoming Chief Content Officer for WB, all but confirmed the year we can expect The Batman while offhandedly listing off several properties coming up in 2018.

“Then in 2018, there is a second Fantastic Beasts film, and Ready Player One feels like an ambitious movie by the world’s best filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, that will set the world on fire. There is Aquaman with James Wan, and Scooby Doo will be a huge launch and then there is Lego Ninjago. And then there is Ben Affleck’s Batman. I believe the place I love is set to succeed in the long term here, and I can be a bit selfish and think, ‘How do I want to live my own life?’ Tech, China and investing are real passions for me that have emerged over the past few years. But if I didn’t know everything would be OK for everybody here, it would have been a lot harder to start my own thing.”

Wow. Talk about burying the lead there. 

So not only did Silverman confirm that The Batman would be hitting theaters in 2018 (we’re guessing March-July, given that Aquaman has an October release date), but noticeably absent from that list of high-profile tentpole flicks was The Flash.

The Flash is perhaps DC’s biggest trump card right now. The character is beloved by fans, and he’s well known by the mainstream, and while he’s doing the Lord’s work on the CW, they can’t seem to lock down a director. Earlier this year, they lost Seth Grahame-Smith, and just a couple months ago, they lost Rick Famuyiwa; both due to creative differences. With that in mind, it seemed unlikely they’d actually hit that January shoot date we’d been expecting, and as such, the originally-planned 2018 release date seemed even less likely.

Of course, it’s always possible that Silverman simply left off The Flash by accident, but it is a bit suspicious.

So what does the future hold for the DCEU? We dare not even speculate at this point.

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SOURCE: Deadline