The Batman Part 2's release has been delayed, and that could pose problems for James Gunn's DCU (2024)

Bad news, Dark Knight fans: The Batman Part 2 won't be releasing in late 2025 after all.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has announced in a press release (as seen by Deadline) that the sequel to 2022's The Batman has been pushed out of its previously confirmed October 3, 2025 launch slot. The highly anticipated Robert Pattinson-starring comic-book movie was set to stealth its way into theaters ahead of Halloween 2025, but its release has been moved back a year until October 2, 2026. Deadline suggests the reshuffle is an after-effect of 2023's Hollywood writers strike.

The Batman's sequel was confirmed to be in development by director Matt Reeves at CinemaCon 2022, which wasn't a surprise to anyone who saw that movie. In our review of The Batman, we called it "a stunningly meticulous and tension-filled DCEU [DC Extended Universe] movie that doesn't lose sight of the iconic vigilante's comic book roots" and said it was "another outstanding entry in the Caped Crusader's ever-expanding movie franchise". Based on its 85% critics and 87% audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, many viewers agreed with our sentiments.

Even though it's been in development for almost two years, we actually know very little about The Batman Part 2. We do know that Reeves will helm the film, that Pattinson will be back as DC's iconic vigilante, and that fan detectives might have unearthed The Batman sequel's villain well ahead of time. Those snippets of information aside, though, the movie is shrouded in mystery. Read our guide on The Batman ending explained, too, to see what it sets up ahead of its successor's eventual release.

Speaking to French publication comicsblog.fr recently, Matt Tomlin – who co-penned the first movie and has worked on the follow-up's script – suggested that work on the sequel's screenplay was ongoing. In light of last year's industrial action that doesn't come as a shock, and it's likely why WBD has delayed The Batman 2's release by 12 months. With filming rumored to begin in August (per Production Weekly), however, the script might be further along that we believe.

Gunn-ing for some breathing room

The Batman Part 2's revised release date is good news for its cast and crew, who won't have to rush its development to meet the originally planned late 2025 launch date. But they do face another potentially sticky issue: causing confusion, with the potential arrival of two Batman movies in close proximity to one another.

You see, Reeves' Batman universe – which includes his eventual The Batman trilogy, plus two TV spin-offs in The Penguin and an Arkham Asylum-set series (both will stream on Max in the US) – exists independent of James Gunn's rebooted DC Cinematic Universe (DCU). Essentially, Gunn's lineup of movies and TV shows will replace the now-defunct DCEU. Meanwhile, Reeves' Batman-based projects will sit under the DC Elseworlds umbrella, a collection of DC superhero productions, including the Joaquin Phoenix-starring Joker 2, that will exist outside of the DCU.

Okay, so what's the problem? There's the small matter that one of Gunn's DCU Chapter One movies will – perhaps unsurprisingly, given his popularity – star Batman. It's called The Brave and The Bold (one of four DCU projects we're most excited about), and it'll take inspiration from Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin-starring comic series, which ran from 2006 to 2013. The movie will reportedly be directed by Andy Muschietti, who helmed 2023's The Flash movie.

Now, it's highly unlikely that The Batman Part 2 and The Brave and The Bold will both arrive in theaters in 2026 – after all, the latter doesn't have a writer yet, nor a confirmed cast. Filming on The Brave and The Bold, then, isn't likely to start shooting until 2025, and that's me being wildly optimistic.

However, if these movies launched within 12 to 18 months of each other, they'd surely perplex cinemagoers. Will people realize that they exist in separate universes? If they do, will viewers remember which version lives in each one? A similar problem was posed when Pattinson was confirmed as a new iteration of Bruce Wayne/the Dark Knight, even though Ben Affleck was still playing the same character in the DCEU when that announcement was made in mid-2019. However, with Affleck's time as Batman coming to an end, there was a clear distinction between the two properties. That won't be the case here, with Pattinson's Batman and the DCU's own Caped Crusader co-existing in different universes.

There's a very real dilemma, then, for Gunn and Reeves to overcome. Once both films are released, I think it'll be easier to distinguish which one is which. Until then, there's a murky gray area between the DCU and Reeves' Bat-Verse that general audiences might struggle to adapt to. My solution to all of this? Give The Batman Part 2 some breathing room by releasing The Brave and The Bold after 2028. Sure, that means we're in for a long wait for the DCU's Batman, but it's a price worth paying if it means fans aren't baffled by two Batmen existing simultaneously.

The Batman is available to stream right now on Max (US), Netflix (UK), and Foxtel (Australia).

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