The impending box office battle between D.C. and Marvel just got a lot more direct, although unfortunately we’ll have to wait another year to see it unfold. Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel sequel, better known as the untitled Batman vs. Superman movie, was originally set to be released on July 17th, 2015, a date that put it two months after The Avengers: Age of Ultron and two weeks before Ant-Man. Now this week Warner Brothers has announced that they have decided to push the movie back to 2016 in order to “help fully realize the vision.” While that doesn’t tell us much, it’s pretty clear that there is a lot riding on this movie and they cannot afford to have it fail. In its place, the WB has inserted their upcoming Peter Pan reboot Pan, which is being directed by Joe Wright. Yay?

According to Variety, the untitled Superman-Batman movie has now been scheduled for release on May 6th, 2016. There was already another untitled Marvel movie set for May 6th, which means that, theoretically, the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes will directly compete on that date. However, it seems likely that Marvel will end up moving their film depending on whether or not it is based on a proven character like Thor or a new character like Doctor Strange.

There has been plenty of speculation about other possible reasons for the delay, including an unconfirmed rumour about Ben Affleck possibly being injured (wouldn’t that just add to his role as an older Batman?). Release schedules are such that if a big summer movie like this gets pushed back by even a few weeks, you might as well move it to the following year in order to reserve a prime slot. Either way, it’s smart move on the part of Warner Brothers to go head to head with Marvel in 2016 and avoid people thinking they are scared to compete. Are you disappointed about the delay? Do you think this is a bad sign for the Batman vs. Superman movie?