With WBD up for sale, Paramount Skydance is attempting an early bid while Warner leadership hopes for a bidding war, with rumors Netflix is about to jump into things with their own bid. This means any merger may result in changes to whatever plans WBD’s DC Studios has for its superhero franchises, including Batman.
Robert Pattinson stars in “The Batman”
Source: Warner Bros.
Batman Up For Grabs?
The gist of the matter is that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking for a buyer, and Paramount Skydance emerged as an early contender, followed by word Netflix has plans of its own to make a play for WBD. You can read more about the situation here.
Whomever wins the bidding war will obtain a newly minted DC superhero cinematic universe that’s already flying high at the box office and enjoying immense critical and mainstream audience approval. And among that stable of comic book characters, Batman is still the crown jewel.
The studio that obtains WBD will be in a position to shape the entire future of DC’s cinematic success, and make a fateful choice about Batman’s fate: move ahead with DC Studios’ plans for a separate new Batman franchise in the DCU, or fold Matt Reeves’ acclaimed blockbuster The Batman franchise into the DCU for minimal risk and maximum immediate payoff?
Recently, Matt Reeves stated outright that his The Batman movies are “Elseworld,” meaning they aren’t set in the shared cinematic universe established in James Gunn’s Superman this summer. Which seemingly renders the question above moot, right? Maybe. But keep reading.
Batman Always Has A Plan
The DCU’s plans, meanwhile, seem to be as follows, at least as far as we know or can reasonably surmise at the moment…
Gunn is a self-proclaimed fan of author Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin and Batman Incorporated comic book runs, and that is what Gunn prefers for a shared-world Batman. The idea with the DCU’s The Brave and the Bold is to make it a pre-existing bat-world in the DCU, including Batman and some of his extended bat-family.
The first attempt to put Batman’s world into the live-action DCU is, surprisingly enough, a villain horror film originally pitched as its own separate Elseworld project.
Clayface is a villain origin story from director James Watkins, with a screenplay from Mike Flanagan (among my personal favorite modern writers and filmmakers) and Hossein Amini. So far, we know it’s a horror story, which conforms to Gunn’s remarks about loving the supernatural stories and fantastical elements of the Batman comics. That’s also an obvious great way to distinguish between Reeves’ grounded noir approach and the DCU’s world, but without losing the gothic nature and tone of Batman’s corner of the superhero cinematic realm.
But it’s also worth noting Clayface’s aesthetic so far seems to closely resemble The Batman’s. I mention this merely to note that, hypothetically, if you wanted to retain the option to fold Reeves’ Batman into the DCU, it’s easier if the distance to overcome is already minimized as much as possible. But it’s also different while still feeling like Gotham from the Batman stories, and can be used for a different Batman as well (as is the DCU plan at the moment).
Reeves meanwhile gets to finish his The Batman trilogy and spinoffs for the next several years, because there simply aren’t any projects (at least, none currently announced, so this is an admitted big caveat) for the shared-world DCU that include Batman’s appearance for at least the next 2 years or more, and they can easily extend that out to 3 years if needed, so Reeves can get his trilogy done and release his third movie around 2030.
If Reeves hit that hypothetical time-line (I’m not saying any such deadline situation has been set up, the point of the timing is merely relevant to lay out the big picture and larger point, as will be clearer shortly), then Gunn’s DCU can plan to launch The Brave and the Bold (or The Batman and Robin, as I and others guess the title might eventually revert to) around 2031. Meaning it would need to get into production around late-2029 for a summer release. So, casting and writing needs to be done by 2029.
If there are no projects needing a live-action Batman until at least 2027, casting Batman in the next couple of years and then having him cameo or supporting-appear in a DCU team-up movie in 2028 or 2029 works fine as a reveal that a new Batman exists in the DCU. Again, the groundwork for this by mentioning Gotham and Batman in other projects, and via the film Clayface, all helps give Batman and his world a presence without necessitating this Batman’s personal appearance sooner than 2028 or 2029.
That lets Reeves finish his series of films, sets up the DCU Batman, but avoids any real overlap or competition, while also delaying actual production on any new DCU-Batman stuff til after a merger that could change plans. They can presume on paper that a new Batman will appear as intended in 2028 or 2029, but it doesn’t have to change anything actually in production or being released for at least two years, well past the time a merger will be completed.
Batman As Surprise Guest?
The obvious upending of all of this would be if Batman is cast and appears in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow DCU team-up event film. But that’s the same year as The Batman: Part II, and I’d be surprised if the earlier efforts and intentions to avoid both Batmen appearing in theaters at the same time. Still, it’s possible Gunn will choose to cast his new Batman and give him a big launch with a smaller cameo or supporting role late in the game in Man of Tomorrow, and perhaps that would help orient audiences to the fact a different Batman exists in the DCU than the one they see in the solo The Batman: Part II that year.
I could see that reasoning and respect the idea, but I think ultimately the risk and potential for complaint, confusion, and comparison all becomes pretty high in that circumstance and could wind up undermining the intended narratives and reception for the idea and the films. With things going pretty swimmingly right now for DC and WBD, and with a potential merger in the near future, this isn’t the time to risk upsetting the cart unnecessarily.
My guess is Batman won’t make an appearance in Man of Tomorrow. So while I won’t be at all shocked to be proven wrong about that, at this point I just don’t expect it.
Not So Fast, Batman
But if that all sounds like the matter of The Batman as a standalone “Elseworld” franchise and the DCU having a new upcoming The Brave and the Bold Batman sounds is settled, think again.
Superman is a blockbuster hit, the first shared-world DC movie to best every Marvel Studios live-action release the same year. Superman’s $615 million is the best shared-world DC box office result in seven years of nine previous films that all failed to break $450 million. More to the point, it proves Superman’s public image and audience interest is healthy enough to build an even bigger success upon.
That doesn’t make success inevitable, of course, as 2013’s Man of Steel launched the DCEU with its own $670 million and its underperforming follow-up Batman v Superman still took $874 million.
I know a lot of folks hate the comparison, but it’s a legitimate comparison in the context of the moment – a separate existing blockbuster Batman franchise just revived and with potential to once again build anticipation toward even higher box office outcomes, while a separate shared universe attempts to create its own new Batman. Not a precise comparison, since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy had already completed and would’ve been restarted in order to exist within a larger DCEU, while Reeves’ The Batman is just getting started at the same time.
But imagine if Batman Begins had released shortly before Man of Steel, or if Man of Steel had released back when Batman Begins released too, and then after Man of Steel they confirmed it was all a shared universe shortly before The Dark Knight hit theaters as a DCEU film, letting Nolan’s films do what they want without mentioning the rest of the DCEU if he doesn’t want to, while the other films sometimes have Christian Bale’s Batman show up or Ledger’s Joker and so on.
This is the background that could make any studio or executive look at the current situation and think the smartest choice is to merge the blockbuster Superman with the blockbuster The Batman, announce it after the merger, and let Reeves complete his trilogy but with an eye toward it as set in the past, and then The Brave and the Bold will jump forward a decade and fill in the gaps to only the extent necessary. They can let any characters and villains return from The Batman trilogy and spinoff miniseries as wish to return, and recast the others without mentioning it.
Anyone arguing the aesthetics don’t fit together can look at the Clayface aesthetics which are set in the DCU and rethinking this complaining. And by leaning into horror early in the DCU appearances of Gotham City, they establish an easier transition. They are certainly making the possibility a lot easier, intentional or not, and I doubt very seriously it’s not intentional at this point, since it also just works for Gotham anyway.
I’m not advocating for that outcome, as I personally prefer Reeves to build his own separate The Batman world, with sequels and miniseries expanding outward with more of the bat-family and villains, while the DCU goes for something much different and focused primarily on the more fantastical villains and plots, including a large cast of costumed bat-family heroes (including Robin, Bat-Girl, Nightwing, Batwoman, and Huntress). Batman’s DCU presence being team-ups, even in what’s treated as his solo franchise, would be a novel approach that turns every film into an “event” Batman movie, like a mini-Justice League or mini-Avengers just of Batman’s very own.
So I personally hope DC Studios does roll the dice and try to build a new separate Batman franchise leaning heavily into the comics world of supporting heroes and villains, crossing over often with the rest of the DCU, while Reeves gets freedom to keep doing his own Batman thing as long as he wishes.
But I’m not spending tens of billions of dollars to buy the entire movie studio package. If I were, then I might look at the situation and let it be known that the safest business choice and closest thing to a sure bet is to use Clayface as the film to bridge the DCU and The Batman universes next year, while The Batman: Part II does whatever Reeves wants but merely is asked to slightly tweak things like the police uniforms to match Clayface better and otherwise can ignore the rest of the DCU. Reeves could get started on Part III’s script soon after Part III hits theaters, with a plan to fast-track it into production with an expected release in 2030 or 2031.
If The Batman: Part II arrives in 2027 and Part III releases in 2030 or 2031, then Pattinson can appear in a supporting role in a DCU team-up film in 2029 to confirm he’s part of that shared universe, with The Brave and the Bold produced and ready to release in 2031. Even if The Batman: Part III releases in 2031, The Brave and the Bold could release the same year (set 10 years later, with Dick Grayson already gone off as Nightwing and Damian ready to appear), the first film in the summer and the second film at Christmas. A Batman-family team-up movie for the holiday season and New Year sounds like a winning idea to me.
This establishes The Batman trilogy as the backstory of the DCU, without forcing Reeves’ films to internally establish the DCU as their own future.
Pattinson has publicly stated his own preference for the fantastical approach, and Clayface is one of his personal top-two choices for the villains he’d like to face on the big screen. I think there’s a not-entirely-zero chance that when James Gunn said a famous actor had already expressed interest in the role, he might’ve secretly and slyly been referring to Pattinson himself (Gunn doesn’t lie to fans or the public, but he has every right to keep secrets and to talk about some of this stuff he’s pressed on by fans/journalists in ways that disguise some secrets). I doubt it, but it’s impossible not to recognize Pattinson’s own openly stated interests converge heavily with precisely what Gunn and the DCU plan to do.
Is Batman’s Future Set?
Two things can be true at the same time: first of all, DC Studios and the leadership, as well as Reeves and his team, can all be acting on the assumption their plan for separate universes that allow for two Batmen on the big screen is proceeding as if that’s how it will play out; but second of all, the studio buyout inherently means any current plans can be overridden by new leadership, so anything not already in production or completed would be up for debate. We’ve even seen completed films shelved, so even production or completion aren’t definitive life rafts.
And the truth is, as great as a new DCU Batman could be and as much as I and many others love the plans and hope to see it play out while Reeves is allowed to do his own bat-world expansion, a studio buying WBD and taking over DC could easily look at the situation and say “it’s easy to pull this off, finish The Batman trilogy, we’ll sign up Pattinson for the DCU, that’s that.” The economic arguments for this, and for the idea that it is what any potential studio buyers would at least think about, seem undeniable.
It’s also true, though, that with Batman being a relatively low-risk investment, the opportunity to expand the footprint and payoff while giving a new studio owner the chance to claim their own “stamp” on a new Batman is also an appealing pitch – and something I expanded on in my article yesterday, so be sure to check that out.
You can’t run a studio on “anything can happen, who knows in theory” so of course WBD and DC Studios must move ahead with their plans, but they must also recognize the reality of the situation and therefore include in their plans the potential things could evolve and change, and I believe that’s exactly what’s been going on and why we see a lot of smart maneuvering and planning in how this is all playing out.
They’re probably setting it up so the general outline and plan can proceed regardless of the most likely potential outcomes on the table for DC’s future, and any adjustments become far less painful and don’t disrupt the rest of the plan.
Batman and the DCU look to have a lucrative future ahead of them regardless of which path they wind up taking, as both offer strong advantages and relatively mild risks. And for now, I think DC Studios has positioned itself well to ride the situation out and move forward with their plans without closing the door on options for new ownership.
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