The prospect of Robert Pattinson's Batman becoming the DCU's Dark Knight continues to dominate fan discussions. If it were to happen, it would require a great deal of compromise on the parts of both James Gunn and Matt Reeves, though last month saw the former confirm the idea has been discussed within DC Studios.
There isn't necessarily anything in The Batman to stop it from retroactively becoming the first DCU movie, though how willing Pattinson is to potentially spend the next decade showing up in all manner of crossovers is hard to say.
Ultimately, it doesn't seem overly realistic. Syncing up whatever we see in The Batman Part II with The Brave and the Bold, a story about the Caped Crusader training his son, Damian Wayne, as Robin, would be near-impossible without a significant time jump. Unless Andy Muschietti's movie is scrapped, of course.
For what it's worth, following yesterday's rumoured DC Studios event for select press, scooper @MyTimeToShineH has chimed in to say, "Robert Pattinson is 100% not the DCU Batman. A new actor will take on that role."
This isn't overly surprising and with Reeves' sequel quickly taking shape, it's time for Gunn to get The Brave and the Bold where it needs to be...and cast one of the DCU's most important roles (possibly in time for next September's Clayface movie).
Talking on the Golden Globes red carpet last month, The Batman director Matt Reeves was quizzed on Gunn's comments but didn't dismiss the notion of bringing his franchise into the DCU.
"Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it really comes down to whether or not it makes sense," the filmmaker started. "What's been great is there was a story that I wanted to tell that we're calling The Epic Crime Saga which is the thrust of what we wanted to do. It's been important to me to be able to play that out. James and Peter have been really, really great about that and they're letting us do that."
"What the future brings, I can't really tell you," Reeves added. "I have no idea right now except that my head is down now about getting The Batman Part II shooting and to make it something special which is, of course, the most important thing."
Pushed on whether he thinks Pattinson's Bruce Wayne will eventually join the DCU, a flustered Reeves replied, "I don't know. We'll have to see where that goes." Both he and Gunn must be aware that fans want this to happen, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.
The Batman 2 will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.