3 Batman Movies Might Have Just Been Scrapped By James Gunn’s DC Exit
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
Batman is DC's biggest character, but that does not mean that he is untouchable, and after a shake-up at DC Studios, there is a chance that three very different movies from the Dark Knight's corner of DC will no longer see the light of day. From the start of the DCU Chapter One, when the franchise's slate was announced, Batman was present.
James Gunn and Peter Safran announced that Batman's The Brave and the Bold movie would feature the live-action debut of Bruce Wayne's biological son, Damian, as well as other Bat-Family characters. Since then, the DCU Batman reboot movie has failed to get a release date or share any more details, with the many delays to Matt Reeves' The Batman - Part II impacting the DCU's own live-action Batman movie.
Now, it turns out that DC Studios' co-CEOs will not get to see their plans for The Brave and the Bold come to fruition, as Gunn and Safran have exited DC, being replaced by former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham. This is a shocking turn of events, as it was only weeks ago that Gunn was commenting on what was DCU canon or not in The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon? podcast.
Where Batman is concerned, Gunn had also recently teased that the casting process for the DCU's Bruce Wayne was not too far away. Now, it will be up for Latcham and the new Skydance regime to figure out how to move forward with DC and the multiple Batman projects in development both in and outside the DCU, and without Gunn shepherding the franchise's creative vision, this might mean scrapping three Batman movies.
James Gunn's DC Studios Exit Could Lead To 3 Very Different Batman Movies Being Scrapped
DC Studios had two live-action Batman movies in active development. One of them is Reeves' The Batman - Part II, which brings back Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight, and which saw Steven Soderbergh step in to helm the final part of production after Reeves had to leave due to a personal matter. The Batman - Part II is far along in development after several delays and will be released on February 18, 2028, so it is safe from being scrapped. However, the original plans for the franchise to be a movie trilogy are unlikely to be followed on due to the DCU's needs.
If Skydance keeps the DCU or replaces it with a new shared universe, it will need to bring in Batman, DC's most popular hero, quickly after years of DC projects without casting a new Bruce Wayne. Given how the many delays to The Batman - Part II kept pushing The Brave and the Bold back, even if Reeves were to be back full-time for a threequel, the franchise's track record of impacting the DCU's Batman might mean it will get nixed. The Brave and the Bold itself is another DC movie that might be scrapped following Gunn's DC exit.
Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order.
Sure, the DCU will obviously make a Batman movie, but that specific version of it, with the story focusing on Damian Wayne, and expected to have The Flash director Andy Muschietti, has no guarantee of being what new DC head Latcham believes will appease the masses. Finally, another Batman project in danger is the animated Dynamic Duo. The movie might be scheduled for a September 22, 2028, theatrical release, having cast rising star Mason Thames as the Dick Grayson version of Robin. However, its puppets-meet-animation approach was always risky box office-wise, and with Supergirl bombing and Clayface being a modest success, this one's potential might not be high enough.
DC Needs To Answer Its Batman Question Quickly
Amid this major shake-up, what the new DC definitely needs to make a top priority right now is casting its new Batman and firmly announcing plans for his debut movie, with a release date, director, and so on. While not all DC Studios projects under Gunn and Safran were universally beloved, there is no denying that general fan sentiment towards the franchise went up exponentially after years of the divisive DCEU.
As such, to ease any concerns about the studio's future, finally casting the new Batman and fast-tracking his debut movie after Gunn's DCU failed to do that would go a long way with fans. It would also accelerate the timeline for when the DCU's Trinity could finally be together, given how Wonder Woman will reportedly debut in Gunn's Man of Tomorrow next year. That also becomes a necessity if the new DC Studios ends up scrapping all three of these Batman movies that are now in danger, or at least some of them, ensuring that fans know DC has a clear plan for Batman's future.
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