Things have been quiet on The Batman front for a while now but, seeing as the DC Extended Universe – sorry, the Worlds of DC – is getting back on track, some new info has finally arrived on the project.
The latest intel from Revenge of the Fans has it that director Matt Reeves has totally re-conceived his vision for the next solo movie for the Dark Knight. As is well known, Reeves’ top choice to replace Ben Affleck in the title role was Jake Gyllenhaal, which pointed to the film taking the form of a prequel that aged down Bruce Wayne by only a few years. However, it’s clear that Gyllenhaal’s no longer in the running for the job as he’s just signed on to play Mysterio in Spider-Man Far From Home. And according to RotF, there’s a very good reason for that.
Apparently, Reeves has reformatted his script for The Batman from focusing on the Caped Crusader in his mid-thirties to a version of the character who’s operating right at the beginning of his career. As such, the director’s now looking for an actor 15-20 years younger than Affleck, which puts the age range at around 25-30 years old.
As we’ve previously reported, the reason for the extreme change is because Reeves wants The Batman to be inspired by Frank Miller’s classic origins story Batman: Year One. Fans will know that this was a loose influence for Christopher Nolan on Batman Begins, too. Much like that movie, though, Reeves probably won’t deliver a straight adaptation. After all, RotF supports the rumors that the Penguin will be the main antagonist.
Exploring Wayne’s early years on the job isn’t exactly the most original take for The Batman, but you can understand why Reeves wants to start there so as to put his own stamp on the character, much like Tim Burton and Nolan did before him. Not to mention that featuring a young Bats would also be the simplest way of avoiding the continuity already surrounding Batfleck’s version and wiping the slate as clean as possible.