Let me be the first to say that I know I’m going out on a limb here. The Batman Part II could easily be fine, and Robert Pattinson is simply enjoying life as a new dad instead of worrying about cramming himself into a rubber suit while internet dweebs cry about his workout routine. Everything could be right as rain — or we’re already seeing signs that the Robert Battinson-verse is getting Zaslav’d. Follow me to my Batcave!
(Please hold all questions about why there’s a giant penny with Meghan McCain’s face on it until after the tour.)
I started noodling on this theory back in July when Variety broke the news that Matt Reeves’ Arkham Asylum series had been taken out back by Warner Bros. Thanks to my time working the Film/TV beat for Uproxx, I knew that the show was actually the former shell of a previously planned Gotham PD series that never saw the light of day either. Given the sh*t show over at Warner Bros. Discovery, none of this was entirely surprising, but then Reeves made an interesting remark while promoting The Penguin a few weeks later.
Via Entertainment Weekly, emphasis mine:
“As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,” Reeves recalls. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”
The execs at HBO offered their guidance. “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,’” Reeves notes.
For those of you who don’t know, Matt Reeves was the first filmmaker to sign a first-look deal with the newly-formed Warner Bros. Discovery back in August 2022. It was a dose of positive PR that the studio desperately needed after the Batgirl debacle plus it calmed concerns that a sequel to The Batman had yet to be officially greenlit. At the time, it seemed like WBD was bending over backwards to give Reeves everything he wanted. Based on his remarks to EW, not so much.
Reeves openly stated that the whole impetus for his deal was making “cool shows” that branch out from The Batman. Essentially, two have already been snuffed out. The Gotham PD series, and the Arkham Asylum series that replaced it. Granted, The Penguin is inexplicably hitting HBO later this month, but over the Labor Day weekend, another interesting little tidbit came out: Robert Pattinson won’t appear in the series. Not even a cameo. Something’s not right.
Before we go any further, I’m not trying to spin some sort of tale about James Gunn backstabbing Matt Reeves or anything like that at all. These decisions are above his pay-grade. Gunn came into the mix after Reeves’ first-look deal, and obviously, way after The Batman morphed from a Ben Affleck solo film into the three hour long Nirvana video it is today. The official line has been that, like the Joaquin Phoenix Joker movies, The Batman exists in its own pocket universe that is completely separate from Gunn’s DC Universe.
Here’s the thing, though: Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters in October and will be out of the way long before Gunn’s DCU kicks into gear with next year’s Superman. There’s not going to be a third Joker movie, so there’s no chance of there being dueling versions of the character or separate continuities. You see where I’m going here?
If The Batman universe pinches off with The Penguin, well, that’s that. Gunn’s DCU can introduce its Batman in The Brave and the Bold, and there’s no longer the pesky matter of dueling Batmen or dueling anything, really. The CW shows are toast along with Titans and Doom Patrol. Warner Bros. finally has a chance to have only one live-action version of its marquee characters. To add more fuel to the fire, just the other day, Gunn went out of his way to shoot down rumors that WBD was working on a video game based on The Batman.
Of course, it should be noted that The Batman was a commercial success and made money. Sure, it didn’t break a billion, but it did rack up $772 million despite being dropped in the middle of COVID. Zack Snyder may have dinged up the character with his grim-dark, Lois-impregnating version of the character, but Batman is still a shiny gold coin. Zaslav’s WBD going for a double-dip is still in the realm of possibility here — or it could reach for the golden apple that eluded the previous regime: Building a definitive cinematic universe where Batman is just one of several cash cows all-milking each other for gallons of cash milk. I may have screwed up this metaphor.