Yesterday, the news broke that The Batman sequel - originally dated for 2025, remember - has been pushed from 2026 to 2027. Understandably, fans are disappointed by the decision and some are even convinced the movie will never see the light of day.
That doesn't seem overly likely when The Batman grossed $772 million worldwide in 2022 or so soon after small screen spin-off The Penguin became one of the most-watched HBO TV shows ever.
Stranger things have happened, though.
While we know that last year's Hollywood strikes and Matt Reeves' slow writing have played a role in the delay, additional details have been shared by Deadline. According to the trade, "Production [now] isn’t scheduled to get started until late summer."
The movie is also described as "VFX heavy," a hint perhaps that the filmmaker has some particularly ambitious plans for his follow-up.
Also of note is the fact The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the movie is no longer titled The Batman Part II. Instead, the sequel is officially "untitled" and we can't help but wonder whether it's getting a completely different name tied to whatever direction Reeves' story is currently headed in.
While we'd advise taking this with a pinch of salt, several online scoopers have also hinted that Reeves might be dealing with serious personal issues. We don't know what those are or whether it could be related to his or a loved one's health; however, many things are ultimately more important than making a movie.
In The Penguin, Batman's absence was undeniably distracting and, talking earlier this year, the filmmaker confirmed there were at least some discussions about a cameo.
"Over the course of writing the season, we discussed many times whether or not there might be some cross-through that would feel earned," Reeves explained. "We tried a few different ideas conceptually, nothing that was ever written ultimately, but nothing seemed to quite gel in a way that felt earned."
Among the ideas considered was a scene with Batman showing up in front of Vic, Oz's right-hand man. "But even that ended up throwing things off too much," Reeves admitted. Showrunner Lauren LeFranc added, "We wanted our characters to be the predominant people that you're following in this show. Anything that started to detract from that wasn't servicing the type of show we wanted to do."
While the Bat-Signal is as close as The Penguin gets to teasing Batman, LeFranc confirmed it wss there "to launch into Matt's second film. I very much liked the idea of the Batman undercutting the strange, delusional scenario that Oz created for himself at the end, to merit all of his previous actions and to say, 'I finally made it.' And then for us to say, 'Maybe not. Maybe you haven't.'"
Reeves elaborated on that point by saying, "We're kind of flicking you at the end to say the story's not over. The idea that Oz and these characters could be on a collision course at some point with Batman, that's of course out there. So we wanted to leave you with a sense of that without overshadowing that this is really the completion of the story."
While the Court of Owls, The Joker, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface are all compelling possibilities, The Batman sequel's big bad might just be The Penguin (though Colin Farrell has suggested he'll only appear in "five or six" scenes). Still, who knows how much the story has evolved given how much time Reeves has spent working on it.
We'll see, but the movie is now set to be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.