The Batman frankly changed the game for Bruce Wayne, mainly because it was the first time that I felt we actually saw the comics version of the character onscreen. Batman was finally a detective and dealing with a serial killer in The Riddler. It was so glorious, and I loved every second of it because finally Bruce Wayne was doing what he does for the Justice League: solve things—not to mention that Robert Pattinson is brilliant.
So it isn’t really surprising that Warner Bros. is letting Matt Reeves continue to take the reins on Gotham and the Batman universe. He understands how it works, and he gave me the best version of my Dark Knight I’ve yet to see. Plus, I got an added Bat/Cat out of it? It was a win-win! But now reports are showing that Reeves has big plans for his Batman universe yet.
In an exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter, their inside sources said that Matt Reeves is currently developing a sequel to The Batman, which premiered in March of 2022 and grossed $770.8 million worldwide. But more than that, he’s also planning on creating a world of Gotham by expanding his version of Bruce Wayne into spinoff movies and television shows centered around members of Batman’s Rogues Gallery.
The future of The Batman
As I said before, this version of the Batman is so perfect that they’d be fools to not do more of his story. He’s younger than we’ve seen him; he’s fresh in his skills as a detective and as Batman, and he has a lot of growing to do as his world continues to grow. So the news that Reeves is developing a sequel was really a “of course he is” moment for me.
Mainly because of how good Reeves is with Batman. The minute that he went to DC FanDome to talk about the movie and pointed out that we’ve never seen Bruce as an actual detective, I knew that this was going to be the movie for me, and I was right! He understands the dramatic ways of Bruce Wayne and the inherent sadness in him, as well as his desire to solve crimes and fix Gotham in the way that Thomas Wayne would have wanted.
I do hope the sequel continues to grow with Bruce and we get to see as he becomes more confident in his abilities as the Batman, and I want more of a relationship between him and Alfred Pennyworth (played by Andy Serkis) but I’m also interested to see what villains they’d have play into the sequel given Reeves’ other plans for his Batman Cinematic Universe.
Bring in the Rogues Gallery
Another bit of the report said that Reeves was talking with writers and creatives and getting ready to expand the Rogues Gallery with shows and movies about the villains we all love. This has already started with the Colin Farrell series about his take on the Penguin that is coming to HBO Max. But the report specifically said “Scarecrow to Clayface to Professor Pyg” in their breakdown, and whether that is meant as a nod to the range of characters they’re willing to explore or something else, I’m unsure.
But I do hope this means we’d get things like a Huntress series (bonus points for me if it eventually ends up being about Helena Wayne). It just opens a lot of doors for fans of Batman to see their favorite villains come to life. Like maybe we can finally explore Poison Ivy again!
Overall, it makes sense that Reeves is getting this much power. He was the first to really understand how Batman functions in the world of DC comics and Gotham, so I am very excited to see what the future holds for Gotham in his hands.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
