It’s no surprise that this year’s biggest summer movie will get a follow-up film, but Warner Bros. Pictures confirmed the news everyone was expecting this week by announcing the release date for the Wonder Woman sequel.
The follow-up to director Patty Jenkins’ critically praised superhero movie Wonder Woman will hit theaters December 13, 2019, according to the announcement. Actress Gal Gadot will reprise her role as the DC Comics hero in the sequel.
The Wonder Woman sequel is the first movie to claim that weekend release date, and it will hit theaters almost a full year after director James Wan’s Aquaman, which is scheduled to hit theaters December 21, 2018. In between those two films, the Shazam movie is still scheduled to premiere April 5, 2019, with Lights Out director David F. Sandberg behind the camera and production expected to begin in early 2018. Two unidentified superhero movies in WB’s live-action DC Comics universe were recently announced for February 14, 2020, and June 5, 2020.
Although there was an initial report Jenkins would return to direct the sequel, subsequent reports suggest her contract has not been finalized.
To date, Wonder Woman has earned $389.7 million in U.S. theaters, making it the highest-grossing summer movie of the year domestically. It has also earned $780.3 million worldwide, putting it in fourth place for 2017 in the worldwide box-office rankings.
Among the four films in WB’s “DC Extended Universe” of live-action films based on DC Comics characters, Wonder Woman is the highest-grossing movie in U.S. theaters and the second-highest grossing film worldwide, trailing the $873.3 million earned by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
While the sequel’s December 13 release date seems safe at the moment, the episodic chapters of the Star Wars franchise have typically been released on the same weekend every other year, but Star Wars: Episode IX is currently scheduled to hit theaters in May 2019. If that film is moved back for release on the usual December weekend in 2019, there could be some major studio calendar shuffling.
Gadot will next appear as Wonder Woman in the superhero team-up movie Justice League, arriving in theaters November 17.
