The Batman was released in 2022 to glowing reviews from fans and critics and an impressive $772 million worldwide. The sequel is scheduled for a 2028 debut, with the delay at least partly due to personal issues in filmmaker Matt Reeves' life.
The Penguin helped bridge the gap when it was released in 2024, but "The Batman Epic Crime Saga" isn't proving to be as "epic" as first imagined. Beyond Reeves having to step away, could that be down to creative interference from DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran?
As a reminder, Reeves was once developing a police procedural exploring corruption in Gotham City's police department, following a crooked cop fighting for his soul. The filmmaker later shifted focus to an Arkham Asylum-set series which, like Clayface, was moved from the Batverse to the DCU before the plug was pulled.
Shows revolving around Poison Ivy and Catwoman were discussed, though DC Studios reportedly chose not to move forward with the former. As for Selina Kyle's series, it's unclear how far beyond the idea stage that went. Even so, it feels a lot like Reeves' vision for "The Batman Epic Crime Saga" is being stifled.
Gunn has claimed that Clayface was always set in the DCU, but comments from Reeves (via Batman-News) confirm that he and original writer Mike Flanagan originally planned for it to be set in the same world as The Batman:
"After The Batman, I was very excited about this idea. The Batman was not a Batman origin story, but what it did—because it was his first appearance in the city—it was an entree into origin stories for the Rogues’ Gallery. After the movie, when we started working on the script for the next Batman, we began thinking it’d be really exciting to develop a bunch of stories that could be genre stories that related to the Rogues’ Gallery characters and explore their origins. And one of the things I got very excited about was the idea of looking for ways to do really cool, smaller horror films."
"And [Screenwriter] Mike Flanagan came to me and said he had been a huge fan of Clayface—especially the iteration that came from the animated series—and had a passion about doing a horror story with Clayface at the core. So, we started developing it. And as that story started coming together, becoming this sort of tragic love story—The Fly meets this horror thriller—James [Gunn] and Peter [Safran] took over DC Studios, and that was one of the first things we pitched to them. They loved it so much, they wanted to make it one of the DCU movies. And we got very excited about the idea of taking this story into the DCU."
These developments certainly suggest that DC Studios is taking a more hands-on approach to deciding which characters and stories can expand Reeves' universe, especially with Clayface being redirected into the DCU and several television spin-offs failing to materialise.
Of course, not every cancellation can be attributed directly to Gunn or Safran. Even so, it feels like Reeves' vision is being reined in and, in some instances, taken from him and turned into a project for a completely different franchise.
Outwardly, Gunn has been hugely supportive of Reeves—despite basking in the glowing reviews for The Penguin, which he had minimal involvement with—but it can't be easy for him and Safran to have inherited a Batman franchise that's not (and won't be) part of the DCU when they're struggling to get The Bold and the Brave off the ground.
Gunn has admitted he's found it difficult to figure out a new take on Batman, and that's bound to have been made more challenging by a competing vision for The Dark Knight. Warner Bros. Pictures is said to have more control over The Batman movies than DC Studios, but has DC Studios deliberately or inadvertently sabotaged Reeves' plans? Either seems plausible.