A new insider report indicates that James Gunn himself is actively working to prevent the situation wherein there will be two active, live-action Batman at the same time, and that may very well result in the conclusion of the noir-inspired trilogy that Matt Reeves will be directing.
According to the latest report coming from DanielRPK, James Gunn himself wants to see The Batman Part II and its follow-up, the third installment in the series, released in relatively quick succession, effectively concluding the Batman saga starring Robert Pattinson before the DCU’s own take on the character in The Brave and the Bold.
Warner Bros. strategy aims to prevent overlapping Batman franchises
The reason behind this, as per DanielRPK, is “Oh, I am told Brave and the Bold is not coming for years. Gunn is pushing to get The Batman 3 out faster; he wants that trilogy over, he wants to move on. He doesn’t want two Batmans.” Of course, the reason behind that is not really that difficult to understand, especially since James Gunn himself has already publicly stated that he will not be releasing two Batman movies in the same year and that he doesn’t want to “cloud the Batsphere” while Matt Reeves is in the middle of his Batman saga.
Currently, Pattinson’s Batman is a DC “Elseworlds” title, meaning it is outside of the interconnected DC Universe that Gunn and his co-CEO Peter Safran are assembling. The Brave and the Bold, meanwhile, is meant to introduce a new DC Universe Batman and Damian Wayne. The problem here is that there could be two Batmen in theaters at once, both with their own marketing campaigns. This could lead to a lot of consumer confusion.
If The Batman Part II comes out in October 2027, as planned, and Reeves is efficient in his production on a third film, then a 2029 or 2030 release date for The Batman 3 could be a great endpoint. This would allow Gunn’s DCU Batman to debut soon after, without overlap.
From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense to get Reeves’ trilogy out of the way sooner rather than later. The world of superhero movies is a fast-paced one, and a film like The Batman 3 could be lost in a mid-2030s release. Accelerating this process would allow Reeves to tell his crime epic on his timeline, as well as allow Gunn to have a unified DC Universe Batman to launch his long-term plans.
The key takeaway here is that there is no animosity between Gunn and Reeves’ work. There is a desire to create a framework around these two Batmen. There can be two Batmen in the DC Universe, but they cannot be two Batmen at once.
