With James Gunn and producer Peter Safran officially taking the reigns over at DC Studios, it’s become quite clear that some pretty radical changes are already in the works for the DCU. In a recent Twitter announcement, Gunn details the company’s narrative plans for the future, as well as the fate of their existing properties.
One character in particular has fans a little spooked, and it’s not just because he wears a bat costume. Yes, we’re talking about Batman — The Caped Crusader, Gotham’s Dark Knight, World’s Greatest Detective. What the heck is going to happen to The Bat?
Well, according to James Gunn, quite a lot. In the video below, the Suicide Squad director lets slip his tenative plans for The Brave and the Bold. Surrounding Batman and his angsty son (and eventual Robin) Damien Wayne, this story of crime-fighting and family couldn’t sound cooler.
Wait, so there’s going to be two Bat…men? Not exactly. Let’s not freak out just yet, Robert Pattinson isn’t going to be out of a job. Like he says at the start of the video;
“If something is outside of that, like Matt Reeves Batman, Tod Phillip’s Joker, or Teen Titan Go! — that it is clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds — outside of the mainstream DCU continuity.”
So what’s going to happen to Robert Pattinson, and by extension, his turn as Batman? Probably nothing. The Batman wasn’t just one of the best Batman films ever made, it was one of the best films of 2022 — period. Fans couldn’t be more excited for a sequel, and there’s no way that James Gunn and co. could deny them that.
Frankly, Pattinson probably couldn’t give a crap. He’s not going anywhere. Matt Reeves worked hard to bring an incredibly cohesive world to the silver screen, and that fully fleshed out vision doesn’t really need to be connected to the larger DCU.
With their newfound autonomy, the minds behind The Batman franchise might actually be able to do more than they ever could in the first place. Think about it for a second — their story doesn’t have to play nice with DC’s established continuity, and they are allowed to reimagine people, places, and things however they’d like. Jackpot.
The Reeves Batman is self-contained, and we hate to say it, but that’s a good thing. Oh, and it means we’ll be getting two different version of Batman at once. The holiday season might have ended, but it sure feels like Christmas.