For years now, ever since James Gunn was announced as the leader of the new DCU, an open question, if not common request, is that Matt Reeves’ The Batman’s Batman, played by Robert Pattinson, would be the Batman for that new universe.
The most promising thing James Gunn has ever said about the idea is “never say never,” but the longer this goes, and especially in the wake of Superman, the less likely this seems to be. And at this point, I think it’s just time to give it up. The evidence is mounting that this just is not going to happen:
James Gunn has spoken repeatedly about the script for Batman: The Brave and The Bold, the announced DCU Batman film, which is constantly being worked on as we speak.
Matt Reeves finally submitted his long awaited The Batman Part II script and there’s no reason to think at all that he designed it to try to fit in with the DCU. If he did that’s what, Gunn and us waiting for a DCU-based Batman script that may not even be used if they do Brave and the Bold? Nothing about that makes sense, nor would a script for The Batman Part II that does not connect to the DCU if Pattinson’s Bats was going to be in the DCU. He’s going to have to connect to Superman, Supergirl and all of that without having to wait a decade to do so. Another recent report is that the original plan for Clayface was to have that movie exist in the Reeves universe, but it was pulled over to the DCU instead.
Finally, if you’ve seen Superman, boy, it would be tough to put those together. I know that tone shifts are frequent in comics, but those are worlds apart. It’s also already been established in the DCU that Batman has been active for 15 years, so this would be a huge timeskip for Pattinson’s version, leaving that existing set of storylines almost entirely behind. I also don’t think that Gunn would want to wait until 20230 or whatever it might be for a third Batman film to directly connect to the DCU. He probably just wants The Brave and the Bold and more freedom to do his DCU stuff without worrying about Reeves and balancing the other world.
This is just not going to happen at this point. Would it be fun? Sure. Pattinson Batman is great, the movie is great, The Penguin is great. But it’s not going to work. We have to give it up.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy
