During a recent podcast interview, The Brave and the Bold director Andy Muschietti said that the upcoming movie - which will introduce a new actor as the DCU's Batman - has been "postponed a little bit," and that he might helm another project first.
This was followed by the news that Matt Reeves' The Batman sequel had been pushed back a full year, and will not hit theatres until 2027.
There were assumptions that these developments must be connected, with the delays giving Reeves and DC Studios co-head James Gunn more time to figure out how to proceed with these separate universes and decide whether they should make Robert Pattinson the DCU's Dark Knight.
Gunn would later take to social media to claim that The Batman Part II (which will no longer be the film's official title) being pushed was simply down to the script being incomplete, and the Superman director has now said that The Brave and The Bold has not been delayed.
Gunn has previously made it clear that no DCU project will move forward until the script is ready, so technically The Brave and the Bold can't be "delayed" if it had never been ready to begin production in the first place. This does still contradict Muschietti's comments, but we can probably just put it down to crossed wires for the time being.
Even so, rumors persist that The Flash director has been taken off the project.
Last year, we got confirmation that Muschietti had been enlisted to helm the Batman: The Brave and the Bold movie for DC Studios.
“We saw The Flash even before taking the reins at DC Studios, and knew we were in the hands of not only a visionary director but a massive DC fan,” Gunn and Peter Safran said in a joint statement at the time. “It’s a magnificent film – funny, emotional, thrilling – and Andy’s affinity and passion for these characters and this world just resonates through every frame.
So, when it came time to find a director for The Brave and the Bold, there was really only one choice. Luckily, Andy said yes. Barbara signed on to produce with us and we were on our way. They’re an extraordinary team, and we couldn’t have better or more inspiring partners as we embark on this thrilling new adventure in the DCU.”
Then the movie came out!
Though The Flash does have its share of defenders (it sits at a "fresh" 63% on Rotten Tomatoes), it did not perform well at the box office (to say the least), and hyping the film up as "one of the best superhero movies of all time" backfired spectacularly in the eyes of most fans.
For now, we'll just have to wait and see how things progress.
Along with a new take on the Dark Knight, The Brave and the Bold will introduce a very different Robin in the form of Damian Wayne, a "murderous tween raised by assassins who also happens to be the son Batman never knew he had."