WB moves release date for the new Superman film

This pops up all over the comics interwebs, but the basic story is that Warner Bros. has decided to move back the release date for The Man of Steel from December of 2012 (about 1.5 years from now) to summer of 2013.

Here is an example of coverage.

If I had to guess?

A few things could be at play.

• Christmas 2012 is starting to look crowded, and there's not enough room to give Superman its own weekend
• Green Lantern refused to move its date, and post-production may have suffered.  I'm not talking just FX (most of which were fine), but the story-telling that happens during editing a film.  And giving everyone more room to breathe may be seen as a valuable move
• There is a possibility WB is re-thinking parts of the movie and needs the time, but...  I don't have any reason to think that at the moment, but it happens all the time and its not that big of a deal for a $250 million movie.  I'd like to think they thought about what they were doing before they started.

So, we'll see what happens next, but 2 years away is a really long ways a way.