James Gunn Gives An Important Update On The DCU’s Batman

The Batman and its recent spinoff, The Penguin, have established that version of Gotham and its Batman in popular culture, and now DC Studios’ top Gunn(s) weigh in on whether that success has earned the film’s lead another role as the Caped Crusader in the mainline cinematic universe.

While there was a lot of skepticism leading up to the release of The Batman, fans and critics were pleasantly surprised by Matt Reeves’ visionary work with the project. Bringing a uniquely grounded and weighty feel to Gotham and its inhabitants that fans hadn’t quite seen in a long time, The Batman also more than validated the unlikely casting of former Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson in the titular lead role, bringing fans a stellar Elseworld version of Bruce Wayne just as Ben Affleck’s generally liked take on the character died out alongside the rest of the DCEU. While fans are more than eager for the highly anticipated second film in the planned saga, The Batman Part II is seemingly taking on delays for multiple good reasons, with the most notable being an attempt to not overlap with the planned mainline film Batman: The Brave And The Bold.

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While the competition has seemingly proven that Reeves’ The Batman universe can fit in the mainline DCU via Daredevil: Born Again, a much more popular discussion online and in fan circles has been the possibility of Pattinson pulling double duty by becoming a different Batman for Gunn and Safran’s new DCU, starting with Caped Crusader. The idea has persisted thanks to the role remaining vacant, and the two DC Studios bosses addressed it head-on in a recent Warner Bros. Discovery press event covered by Comicbook. After stating that it was very unlikely that Pattinson would be pulling double duty and clarifying that it certainly isn’t the plan to fold Reeves’ Elseworld Batman epic crime saga into the DCU, the dynamic duo gave more details on where things stood. “We’ve talked about literally every permutation on the way to come into this job, in terms of how we were going to handle it, what actors were going to continue over, what we were going to merge,” Gunn said. “We’ve talked about everything. Have we ever talked about [actor] Grant Gustin [from the long-running CW series The Flash]? Yeah. Have we ever talked about Robert Pattinson? Yeah. We’ve talked about all those things. But serious conversations? No.”

Gunn has made a habit of demolishing casting rumors regarding the DCU’s Batman, making this clarification par for the course for the busy filmmaker. While Pattinson isn’t being seriously considered for the role, it’s not because the two creatives don’t appreciate his work on The Batman, of course. “We love him, but we’ve got to introduce a Batman into the DCU,” Safran clarified. “It’s imperative, and so that’s the plan with Brave and the Bold.” While Batman: The Brave And The Bold won’t be an origin story, it will be the first Batman film of a new era at DC Studios, and trying to get it off the ground with the star of another unrelated franchise certainly seems difficult to imagine. As for whether or not The Brave And The Bold will be the first appearance of this new Batman, the answer is much less rigid. “I wouldn’t rule anything out. He could show up in something else,” Gunn teased before reiterating his main point once more. “But the actor doesn’t exist [yet].”

It’s clear that Batman: The Brave And The Bold needs to go in a bold (and entirely different) new direction with its Caped Crusader, and for better or worse, that means distancing itself from Reeves’ clunkily-named Batman epic crime saga. This will be entirely impossible with Pattinson under the cowl in both iterations, so while it would be an easy win for the casting process, Gunn and Safran really should take him out of the running. There are at least a few other great choices out there for the role, and a lot of time left until the DCU’s greatest detective has to make an appearance. In the meantime, fans will need to trust the process and focus on this year’s pivotal Superman.

The Batman is available to stream on Max, with the sequel film, The Batman Part II, set for theatrical release on October 2, 2027.

Source: Comicbook