The Batman director Matt Reeves recently revealed that he's making a lot of progress on the script for his sequel with co-writer Mattson Tomlin, while confirming that his "BatVerse" will remain separate from the DCU.
A reliable source recently claimed that new DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran might be planning to fold both universe together and make Robert Pattinson the DCU's official Dark Knight, but Gunn was quick to debunk the report.
So, the BatVerse looks set to continue as its own thing for now - but could that change at some point? Reeves tells Collider that he's planning to meet with Gunn and Safran to discuss the future of the franchise.
“They [Gunn and Safran] have been great. [...] We're actually supposed to meet in the next few weeks because they want to talk to me about the broad plan, and then they want to hear the BatVerse plan. We're just getting together to talk about all of that."
Could that broad plan involve merging the universes?
"Look, I'm excited to hear what they're going to do," Reeves continued. "The BatVerse thing, as James has said, and as Peter has said, is kind of its own thing they're letting us do.”
Reeves also teased what fans can expect from The Batman 2, and while he didn't reveal any specific details, he did make it clear that Pattinson's Caped Crusader will remain the focus of the story.
“To me, the thing that I really feel is that I also believe that Rob [Pattinson] is so special in the role. My goal has always been to do these point-of-view stories that allow the character to always be the emotional center of the story. Because a lot of times what happens is, after you do the first one, then suddenly other Rogues Gallery characters come in, and they kind of take over, and then Batman takes a backseat sort of character-wise, or emotionally.”
We know Colin Farrell's Penguin will return as one of the main villains following the events of his solo HBO Max series, but Reeves will almost certainly introduce another antagonist. Fans will likely be pleased to hear that Batman will remain at the forefront, though.