Matt Reeves’s debut Batman film, The Batman, in 2022, was a major success. So, a sequel to the film is almost inevitable. Indeed, it sounds like Reeves is hard at work on the script to The Batman 2. But what do we actually know about the film that’s in development?
Will There Be A Sequel To The Batman?
During CinemaCon, held on April 26, 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery announced the development of The Batman 2. Reeves will write and direct the sequel to The Batman. And it will again star Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman. Toby Emmerich, head of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, made the happy announcement during WBD’s presentation at the Las Vegas con.
During CinemaCon, director Matt Reeves himself briefly took to the stage. The director said, “Thank you all for your tremendous support for The Batman. We couldn’t have gotten here without the faith and enthusiasm of all your teams around the world. I’m excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter.”
Matt Reeves’s confirmed recently to Collider that he is still hard at work on the script for the sequel to The Batman. Thankfully, the plans for the new DCU by James Gunn and Peter Safran are not interfering with Reeves’s continued progress. Mattson Tomlin is also contributing to the script. Tomlin contributed to the script for The Batman as well. As to Robert Pattinson as the star of the new film, Reeves said he’s, “really excited to be doing that with Rob, because I just think he’s such a special person and actor.”
When Does The Batman 2 Come Out?
We do not yet know when exactly The Batman 2 will come out. Reports suggest that the earliest we will see a sequel to The Batman is 2025. This reporting is based on the fact that Matt Reeves has not yet even finished writing the script. So, it will take at least until 2025 to finish the film, produce it, edit and then release it.
Will Robin Be In The Batman 2?
We do not yet know if Robin will be in the upcoming sequel to The Batman. But screenwriter/director Matt Reeves has acknowledged it is a possibility that Robin could appear. His short answer is “maybe”. More specifically, Reeves said it would really depend on the next stage of Batman’s emotional arc and journey. At the time, Reeves hadn’t developed the story for The Batman sequel, so he could not commit to featuring Robin in the film. It is safe to say that since we do not yet know if Robin will appear in The Batman 2 as a character, there is no official word yet on who might play him. Although we have some thoughts on who could play Robin.
Who Might Be The Villians In The Batman 2?
Reeves has not announced the main villain(s) for The Batman 2. But he has name-dropped some possibilities. Plus, the ending of The Batman implies the use of certain Batman villains in future sequels all on its own. Let’s take a look.
The Riddler
For starters, we know that The Riddler survived the first film and is safely tucked away in Arkham Asylum. For now. It would be quite anti-climactic to feature The Riddler by himself as the main baddie in The Batman 2. After all, we just saw that in the first film. But, could The Riddler team up with another major villain as Jim Carey did in the role in 1995’s unforgettable Batman Forever? And if so, who would that second villain be?
The Joker
Matt Reeves did not shy away from showing us who The Riddler’s future partner in crime could be in The Batman. In a much-discussed scene in the film, The Riddler makes friends with the guy over in the next cell, who just happens to be… The Joker! As a famous filmmaker once said, if you show a loaded gun in a movie, it better go off at some point. I think in that spirit if you show a loaded Joker in a Batman movie, that’s going to have to go off at some point too. But it might not happen yet in The Batman 2.
The Penguin
Of course, The Batman also introduced us to another longtime Batman arch nemesis – Oz “The Penguin” Cobblepot. Some – including I – have argued that Oz was the most interesting character in the first Bat film. And I am excited to see where the franchise takes him. It makes sense to show him take over and consolidate all of Gotham’s mafia operations that have previously been under the control of people like Sal Maroni (now in prison) or Carmine Falcone (now dead).
Catwoman
And then there’s everyone’s favorite feline Bat girlfriend, Selina Kyle. She did not seem to be a fully formed Catwoman in The Batman – not exactly, anyway – although she got close enough. She’s also not a villain in the traditional sense, but more of a femme fatale-cum-anti-hero type in the first film. While it’s possible that the long arc of her character will bend towards injustice, it seems more likely that in future films Selina will continue to side with Batman and justice.
Mr. Freeze
Meanwhile, Reeves and Robert Pattinson have both expressed their thoughts on who the potential main Bat Villain may be in The Batman 2. Collider reported Reeves’s thoughts on the issue, where he said:
“In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right? I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great. So, I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don’t think that this one is necessarily, it doesn’t lean as hard into the fantastical, I guess. But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here? And so that’s kind of my view, how I see it.”
– Matt Reeves
I think a lot of people – myself included – would love to see a grounded and serious take on the quite tragic Mr. Freeze story. The backstory of Freeze that we’ve come to accept as Batman canon originated with Batman: The Animated Series. And then was more or less parodied in the unparalleled film Batman and Robin with a positively unforgettable Arnold Schwarzenegger chillin’ in the role.
Hush
On Twitter, the mustachioed Matt Reeves also mentioned another possible villain for the film: Hush. In the brief clip. Reeves says, “I think Hush is a really interesting one to do. I’ll choose Hush, but that doesn’t mean the next [villain] will be Hush. I just want to say, there are so many.”
Hush, whose personal vendetta is against Bruce Wayne even more so than Batman, is kind of a logical extension of the plot line from The Batman. In the first film, The Riddler holds a grudge against the Wayne family for what he perceives as their corruption of Gotham City. But his grudge against Wayne personally was only ancillary. Where it would be interesting to see Hush’s hostility be held against the young Bruce Wayne himself, rather than his whole family tree and especially his parents.
The Court of Owls
Finally, Robert Pattinson has a theory of his own as to who the best batman villain(s) would be for The Batman 2: The Court of Owls. Pattinson is a big fan of the Court of Owls storyline from the Batman comic books. He told Den of Geek, “I’d love to do something like Court of Owls. There are elements of The Batman which are kind of horror and I think it really feels quite new for Batman.”
Though there were elements of gothic horror present in the original Tim Burton Batman films, it’s undoubtedly true that Riddler’s serial killing brought a new horror edge to Batman on film. A Court of Owls-focused plot does seem like it could be a logical extension of Reeves’s foray into the horror genre with Batman. And besides, we want to make sure Robert Pattinson keeps having fun in the role, right?
Will The Batman 2 Be Part of the New DCU?
No. While Variety reported that DC Films was considering incorporating The Batman franchise into the wider DCU, James Gunn has denied this reporting. Here’s the tweet from Gunn:
This is welcome news to me, as I recently wrote about how the wider DCU does not need any version of Batman at all.
Learn more about The Batman.