UPDATE: James Gunn has responded and it seems we can write this particular rumour off as being incorrect.
A few months ago, The Batman 2 was pushed back by a whole year, raising more questions about how the "Elseworlds" movie will fit into DC Studios' wider plans for the DCU.
While James Gunn has said out-of-continuity projects will continue to be made, it's still strange to think that The Batman sequel will have to compete with The Brave and the Bold, a Batman and Robin-led project featuring a different Dark Knight.
Still, The Batman was a hit for Warner Bros. in 2022 (it earned over $770 million) and they're the ones who have the final say, not DC Studios.
According to a new rumour shared by scooper @MyTimeToShineH, the current plan is for The Batman 2 to be shot next year, with The Batman 3 immediately following!
At this point, Reeves has had time to work on a third chapter and we can't imagine Warner Bros. wants there to be as big a gap between the second and third chapters as the first and second (by the time The Batman 2 is released, four and a half years will have passed).
We'd imagine the filmmaker wants to move on once the trilogy is done, though Gunn has previously said Reeves is producing an Arkham Asylum-set TV series set in the DCU rather than his Bat-Verse. The Penguin, which bridges the gap between The Batman and its sequel is also set to premiere on Max later this year.
Robert Pattinson will reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in the next movie, though in terms of plot details, we know next to nothing. Two-Face has been rumoured to appear, though the stage has also been set for Barry Keoghan to return as The Joker.
"I have had so many wonderful collaborators to work with, and when you find someone who you love working with, you just wanna [say,] "Come on, please, let’s just keep working together. How much farther can we push it?'" Reeves said of his plans for The Batman 2 last summer.
"Whatever that story’s going to be, it’s going to be to take these characters and put them in some kind of emotional jeopardy," he teased. "There’s a deep-dive that already happened at the beginning and now I’m gonna have to deep-dive again."
The Batman II is scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 2, 2026.