After a strong start to a brand new DC franchise with The Batman, Warner Bros Discovery has announced that The Batman 2 is greenlit. Matt Reeves will return to direct and Robert Pattinson will return to star in and as the Batman. The news came on the heels of Cinemacon after the movie garnered critical acclaim and $759.8 million at the box office.
A long wait to see Robert Pattinson’s Batman
The journey to get this new Batman was a long one. Initially, the movie was meant to be a Batman solo set in the DCEU with Ben Affleck set to write, direct and act. After Zack Snyder’s exit, the DC hierarchy led by Walter Hamada did everything they could to get away from Snyder’s DCEU.
They did this by using Snyder’s casted actors but using tones completely opposite to what he had originally made. The result was a mess, as we see currently the DCEU has no direction. The last DCEU movie, The Suicide Squad, s failed to even bring back its budget and the biggest draw for the first-ever Flash film is a 70-year-old Batman. So when Matt Reeves was given the opportunity to make his own Batman he made a smart decision to keep his Dark Knight out of the broken DCEU.
Another reboot for the Dark Knight
It took almost 5 years for the Planet of the Apes director to get his Batman film on the floors. Was it worth the wait? For some yes for some no. After all, it is hard to gauge an opinion from a fractured fandom like DC’s.
Some want a new Batman and found Reeves’ iteration to their liking but others crave more of Affleck’s Dark Knight. In the end, the movie was a success at the Box office. It brought in similar numbers to what Zack Snyder had done with the Christopher Nolan produced Man of Steel back in 2013. That is enough for WB to want more of what Reeves was cooking. The Batman 2 was officially greenlit at Cinemacon.
The Batman 2’s release will depend on DC’s Kevin Fiege
Although the production of Batman 2 won’t be anytime soon. There is a massive restructuring of the DC hierarchy at WB which will happen soon after the Discovery merger.
The main aim of the whole ordeal will be to find a Kevin Fiege type head honcho who will figure out a more coherent plan for the DC franchise. So it is up to the new head of DC to decide at what phase of the new DC films the Batman 2 fits in.
What will the Batman 2 be about?
The Batman is less of a superhero movie than all the other usual ones you get to see. The movie works more like a Mob flick which shows the working of all the underworlds of the city. The film delves deeper into how deep the rot is. The Dark Knight’s vengeance is the only thing stopping Gotham from falling apart alongside a few good cops in the GCPD like Gordon.
While Reeves teased the Joker at the end of Batman, it is yet to be seen who will be the main antagonist for the Batman 2. What is known is that the Penguin will take over as the biggest underworld mob boss after Carmine Falcone is killed. So it will be up to Batman to stop the further downfall of Gotham.
The Batman is streaming now on HBO Max.
