2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will expand the DCEU established by Man of Steel, introducing Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), and Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) into the narrative realm centered around Henry Cavill’s Superman. After a series of trailers which teased the film’s plot little by little, the latest full-length look at the film may have been too revealing.
A recent German TV spot revealed a sliver of new footage, but of course there is plenty that the trailers have not revealed, such as Green Arrow and A.R.G.U.S. hints and assurances that goofy Mark Zuckerberg Lex Luthor’s Doomsday creation is not the film’s final act. Now we might have a better idea of how just long the movie will be.
According to DC Comics Movie (via CBM), Batman v Superman is already available for pre-order in Germany, with a site listing the movie’s running time as 151 minutes, which is 8 minutes longer that Man of Steel’s 143 minutes. The movie does not appear to be available for pre-order from any North American online retailer, and the running time has not been officially announced.
Since Batman v Superman premieres in Germany on March 26, 2016 – one day later than the U.S. release date – take this report about the running time with a grain of salt. Still, given just how much the movie needs to introduce in such a short amount of time, there was really no way that it could have been significantly shorter than Man of Steel.
Batman v Superman will include appearances by such future Justice League members as Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg, along with effectively establishing the scope of the DCEU’s metahuman population – not to mention introducing a 20-years-on Batman and our first big-screen incarnation of Wonder Woman. Beyond all this, we’ve been promised some kind of resolution to issues raised by the rampant destruction featured in the final act of Man of Steel.
So if anything, we’re surprised that Batman v Superman isn’t longer than two and a half hours. After all, we live in an age when most of these big-budget blockbuster releases tend to tip beyond the two hour mark – see Avengers: Age of Ultron’s 141 minute running time, X-Men: Days of Future Past’s 132 minutes, and the 2 hours and 44 minutes duration of The Dark Knight Rises. It would not be too surprising to find out that BvS adds another ten minutes or so by the time of the film’s release, considering the universe-expanding job that lies ahead.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens on March 25, 2016, followed by Suicide Squad on August 5, 2016; Wonder Woman on June 23, 2017; Justice League Part One on November 17, 2017; The Flash on March 23, 2018; Aquaman on July 27, 2018; Shazam on April 5, 2019; Justice League Part Two on June 14, 2019; Cyborg on April 3, 2020; and Green Lantern on June 19, 2020. The Superman and Batman solo films have release dates TBD.
Source: DC Comics Movie
