The Batman has changed the way that many fans have looked at Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman. For years, we were tired of watching Martha and Thomas Wayne die and Bruce Wayne refuse to do actual detective work, and living in a world where we sort of got Batman movies but he wasn’t ever really the Bruce we knew from the comics.
Then came Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s take on Batman. The saddest Bruce Wayne we’ve seen to date, The Batman gave hope to fans that there was still a place for a franchise about Batman out there, and now we have a confirmed sequel coming our way!
At their CinemaCon 2022 panel, Warner Bros. announced that Matt Reeves would return to direct a sequel to his highly acclaimed film The Batman, with Robert Pattinson returning as Batman. Later, at the end of October 2022, a report from Variety confirming the new heads of DC films stated, “Also on deck is a sequel to ‘The Batman,’ but writer-director Matt Reeves has yet to deliver a finished script, so that movie will not hit theaters until 2025 at the earliest.”
News of a sequel isn’t surprising given that the first film crossed the $750 million mark at the international box office, with many fans flocking to watch the film once it dropped on HBO Max. Still, it’s exciting to know that there’s more coming from Reeves and Pattinson.
Where to take Bruce Wayne and Gotham next
So with the news of The Batman 2 comes the eternal question: Where can we see Bruce go and what villains will he face? With The Batman, we had a whole collection of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery on display and even had hints of other villains that Bruce has already met (looking at you Barry Keoghan’s Joker). So, in theory, we can live in more of the world of The Penguin, and Catwoman could even come back to Gotham.
Or we could explore Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn and that Gotham, too. There are so many possibilities when it comes to Batman and his villains, and I think that taking what worked with The Batman and applying it to the sequel will bring us fresh takes on these characters we’ve come to love throughout the years while also bringing us the Batman we know and love from the comics.
We do have the show about The Penguin starring Colin Farrell on the way, as well, so there’s going to be no shortage of Batman-adjacent content coming from Matt Reeves, and it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the character. It’s not surprising that we’re getting a sequel given the success of The Batman, but it’s nice to know we’re going to return to Gotham with Battinson.
Fans have been clamoring for this
Before the movie even came out and gave fans reason to celebrate, there was already talk about whether or not there would be a sequel to the highly anticipated film. And even back then, Reeves had talked about the idea of a sequel already being in early development.
Aside from the world of Gotham that we got just a glimpse of with things like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, before The Batman, we hadn’t really been back in Batman’s gritty home on the big screen since Christopher Nolan brought us The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. Matt Reeves’ take on Gotham, while hewing closer to the comics than Nolan, seems a bit more grounded than the world that Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher brought to life in the late ’80s and ’90s.
And during the U.K. premiere for the film, he reportedly said that he’d started to work on ideas for a possible sequel.
Whether that meant he already had a script he was working on or he was just in talks with Warner Bros. to come back for a sequel, we don’t know, but it was already promising that there was a possibility that we weren’t just exploring this world in one film only.
More of Pattinson
For fans of Robert Pattinson, who have been around since he first showed up as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, this has been a long time coming. His take on Bruce Wayne and Batman will bring in a new era for the actor, and so, to continue that legacy and lead a new franchise of detective stories for the Dark Knight? That’s exciting and something I actually want out of a Batman story.
(image: Warner Bros.)
