The Batman opened to widespread acclaim in 2022 but, by the time The Batman Part II arrives in theaters, roughly five and a half years will have passed since we first saw Robert Pattinson's Caped Crusader in action.
There's been chatter online about filmmaker Matt Reeves dealing with personal issues, possibly explaining why the sequel hasn't taken shape as quickly as fans would like. 2023's WGA strikes also slowed down work on the movie, so the odds have been well and truly stacked against this one for a while now.
Pattinson is doing the rounds to promote Mickey 17 and recently acknowledged, "I started out as young Batman and I’m going to be f***ing old Batman by the sequel."
Technikart Magazine caught up with the actor and started by quizzing him about shooting Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey later this year. "I have absolutely no right to tell you, I can't even tell you where we're going to shoot," Pattinson said with a laugh. "It's top secret!"
"I'm going to shoot [The Batman Part II] after The Odyssey, at the end of the year," he then confirmed. "I only have a vague idea of the script."
Pushed on whether the Dark Knight will square off with Barry Keoghan's Joker, Pattinson teased, "Yeah, no, I don't know. Potentially..."
Reflecting on being cast as the World's Greatest Detective, he added, "I wait a long time sometimes for a movie or a filmmaker, and yes, there is also a huge element of luck. Listen, for The Batman, it was very strange. I never auditioned, and I had never played a superhero before."
"Two or three years before I got the part, I started thinking about it, when I really had no chance of playing Batman. And then, slowly, it was like an alignment of planets," Pattinson concluded.
In The Batman, The Riddler was defeated by the Dark Knight and locked up in Arkham. Then, in the closing moments of the movie, the serial killer made a new friend who we later discovered was Barry Keoghan's Joker.
Warner Bros. eventually released an extended deleted scene from the movie while it was still in theaters which saw Batman visiting The Joker in Arkham to see if his twisted mind could help track down Edward Nashton. It turns out the vigilante had placed the villain behind bars during his "Year One" in Gotham City, setting the stage for an inevitable rematch between the two arch nemeses.
"It's a big one, but I am going to say that, if the opportunity came about, yes, I'd love to explore, and given the opportunity, really dive into it," Keoghan has said of a possible return. "But I have not been contacted, I've not heard anything."
The Batman 2 will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.