Late last year, we got the disappointing news that Matt Reeves' The Batman sequel had been hit with another delay and won't be arriving in theaters until October 1, 2027. One trade report noted that the movie is no longer expected to be titled "The Batman - Part II," which now seems to have been confirmed.
On Warner Bros. Spain's official website, the sequel is listed as "Untitled Batman Film," and is also categorized as Action/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi/ Fantasy.
This may not mean very much, but since the first movie was listed as Action/Adventure, some fans have taken these additional genres as confirmation that Reeves is planning to introduce more fantastical elements to his relatively grounded "BatVerse."
This would align with previous rumors that Clayface was originally going to be the villain, and the movie's winter setting has led to speculation that Mr. Freeze might serve as the main antagonist.
DC Studios co-head James Gunn claimed that the almost year-long delay was simply down to the fact that the script hasn't been finished, but it sounds like the filmmaker has now, at the very least, cracked the overall story.
In a recent interview, star Robert Pattinson revealed that he does know what The Batman sequel will be about, while also addressing the news that the movie has been pushed into 2027.
“Matt is a very careful writer [laughs]... but I finally now know what it's about. It's very cool and I'm very excited.”
A lot of fans and industry insiders remain convinced that Pattinson will ultimately stay on as the DCU's Dark Knight for the planned The Brave and the Bold movie. Folding the Batverse into the DCU might make the most sense, if for no other reason than to avoid having two separate Batman franchises running alongside each other. By the time The Batman sequel actually hits theaters in 2027, there's sure to have been at least some progress on The Brave and The Bold.
Gunn and Peter Safran refuted the Pattinson rumors during the recent DCU slate update, although it might be telling that the Superman director wouldn't outright state that the Mickey 17 actor would not play Batman in The Brave and The Bold, simply noting that it was "very unlikely."
There have been rumors that Reeves might be dealing with some personal issues which prevented him from working on the script for a period of time. The filmmaker did mention that he had "a lot of stuff going on in my life" during January's Golden Globes, while also confirming that The Batman sequel is scheduled to begin filming this year.
"I can tell you that we're going to be shooting this year and that we're excited about it. I can't really tell you anything about it except that we're really excited. We're continuing the story. I'm really excited to be making it, to get our cast back together, to get new people involved, and we're really excited about it."
"What I'm excited about is I feel like we're doing something that absolutely continues where the story came from but is something that I hope people are going to be really surprised by," he added.