The biggest news from DC FanDome 2021: The Batman, The Flash, first looks & surprise renewals

You don’t really realize how many big properties, movies, TV shows and more fall under the Warner Bros. umbrella until DC FanDome rolls around — but turns out there’s a lot.

With Saturday’s jam-packed four-hour DC FanDome live stream event now complete, we’re catching out breath and trying to make sense of all the crazy first looks, surprise news, massive trailers and general super-geekiness that rolled out during that super-charged marathon.

If you’re looking for all of our DC FanDome coverage of the 2021 event, you can find it compiled here. But just want the highlights? Let’s shout “Shazam,” light the Bat-signal and dig in.

‘The Batman’ Trailer Part Deux

Not surprisingly, DC saved its biggest fun for last to close out the online con with a bang: The Batman’s latest trailer. The first trailer for the film debuted a full year ago during the 2020 edition of FanDome, and it’s taken another year for fans to finally get a look at Matt Reeves’ darker, grittier and serial killer-y-er take on the Dark Knight mythos.

The new trailer included a ton of new footage, giving us a look at classic Batman rogues like Riddler (Paul Dano), Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz)  and Penguin (Colin Farrell). We also get to see the street-level, muscle car spin on the Batmobile, which will no doubt inspire plenty of fan-mods in the years to come.

Check out the trailer here, and dig into our deep dive into how this new trailer looks to reexamine and rethink the Batman mythos right here.

Titans, Doom Patrol, Pennyworth will return

HBO Max is the flagship streamer for DC TV series, and it doesn’t look to give up the crown anytime soon. DC FanDome brought news that fan favorite series Titans and Doom Patrol (both currently airing their third seasons) will return for fourth seasons next year. There was also a surprise renewal for the EPIX original series Pennyworth (which follows a young, spy take on Alfred), which will be moving to HBO Max exclusively for its third season (which is already in production).

Warner Bros. is also developing a Green Lantern series at HBO Max, but DC FanDome didn’t provide any fresh intel on that one.

Peacemaker is back

The first trailer for James Gunn and John Cena’s The Suicide Squad spinoff series Peacemaker made its debut, offering up a deep dive into what Peacemaker is up to now and introducing his new support team as he embarks on… well, whatever this new mission turns out to be. The footage here feels very much in concert with the world Gunn established in The Suicide Squad, with tons of weirdness, humor action and — of course — great music.

Black Adam is killer. Literally.

A Black Adam movie starring Dwayne Johnson has been in the works for years, but it’s finally gone in front of a camera — and DC dropped some real-life footage to prove it. We see Johnson’s Black Adam when he first… awakens(?), taking out a team of commandos by literally cooking one of them into ash. It sets a tone quickly, that yeah this is very much not the Shazam! corner of the universe we already know. The footage looks incredible, and it’s becoming clear why Johnson has had such a passion to get this project made for so long.

Exclusive first looks at the future DC movie slate

The only big, proper trailer to drop at DC FanDome was The Batman, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t plenty of other A-list DC superhero movies on display. Instead of proper trailers, the event featured behind the scenes footage and interviews from several other DC movies in various stages of production.

We got to see some behind the scenes footage from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, as well as Shazam! Fury of the Gods — but the real show-stealer was an all-too-brief bit of teaser footage from The Flash movie. We get to hear a bit of Micheal Keaton’s Bruce Wayne, and some tantalizing peeks at the multiverse chaos to come. Oh, and we almost get to see Keaton’s old school Batmobile. So close.

Don’t forget about the Arrowverse

Though HBO Max is holding down the darker corner of the DC Universe, there’s still plenty of lighter superhero fare still kicking on The CW. We got peeks at a few ongoing shows, but the biggest stories were the first footage from upcoming series Naomi (about a young girl who develops superpowers after an encounter with Superman), a farewell video from Melissa Benoist and the stars of Supergirl, a behind-the-scenes tour and update on Season 2 of Superman & Lois, and some fresh featurettes from Batwoman (including one on new hero Batwing).

Oh, and arguably the biggest news of the day — The Flash is finally getting some comic-style golden boots.

Other cool stuff

But that’s not all! DC Comics is updating Superman’s mission statement for the modern era. We got a fresh poster and first look at Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer in Netflix’s Sandman series. J.J. Abrams and Bruce Timm dropped some new intel on their throwback animated Batman series Caped Crusader. Plus the creative team behind the live action Batgirl series offered an update ahead of production ramping up.