From the very beginning, The Batman has been billed as a "Year Two" story. That's a significant departure from previous movies, which have either retold Bruce Wayne's all-too-familiar origin story or jumped straight into the Caped Crusader being an experienced crimefighter in Gotham City.
With talks about a sequel already taking place at Warner Bros. (news that surprised no one when two HBO Max TV shows are already in the works), we can't help but wonder whether those follow-ups will remain in this "Year Two" period or skip ahead in time. Both options have strong storytelling potential, and we asked producer Dylan Clark about that possibility during this week's UK junket for The Batman.
"I think it’s always about, ‘Where is Bruce emotionally?’ and where you want to pick up with him," Clark tells us in the video below. "We didn’t want to do an origin story with this. We didn’t want to see him as a Batman who had perfected his Batman ways. We wanted to see him grappling with what that meant. I think we earned the arc at the end of the day."
"So, it’s a little bit premature [but] we’re really focused on getting this movie seen on the big screen by as many people around the globe and they’ll hopefully all say very loudly that they want more," he continued. "Then, all of the ideas that have been percolating in our heads - you know, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…?’ - we can start to put on paper and kind of land."
However, Clark then concluded by teasing that the next movie will indeed move past The Batman's setting. "I can’t say if it will...I suspect it would go a little bit further than Year Two."
Whether it's "Year Three" or even further into this Batman's vigilante career, potential leaps forward in time mean we could be looking at a trilogy that follows his mission to save Gotham City during very specific periods in his life. This has the potential to explore the Dark Knight in a way no previous movie has, and we just hope Pattinson and Reeves are all in on this journey for the foreseeable future.
Be sure to check back here on Monday at 5pm BST/9am PT for our spoiler-free review of The Batman!
The Batman in cinemas 4th March.