The Batman Part II

When Matt Reeves’ The Batman premiered on March 4, 2022, it immediately became one of the best-reviewed and received DC superhero films of all time. The Robert Pattinson film harkened back to the cape crusader’s detective-noir roots while also giving him a voice as the narrator of his own tale. It didn’t take long for fans to start clamoring over a sequel. Well, The Batman Part II is officially on its way, and we have a few details to pass along.

THE BATMAN PART II ANNOUNCEMENT WAS PART OF DC’S BIG FUTURE PLANS

The Batman earned more than $771 million at the box office, so it would have seemed nuts for the studio to skip on a sequel here. There was a ton to capitalize on for Matt Reeves and company. On the same token, DC and Warner Bros are in the midst of a major shift so it didn’t seem like any project was safe.

But with the recent monumental changes within Warner Bros, first teaming up with Discovery and secondly announcing that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be DC Studios’ new co-heads, the new dynamic duo made it official by laying out their 10-year DC film plan. That is set to include Reeves’ The Batman Part II, which is actually supposed to be the second film in a Reeves-planned Batman trilogy.

In fact, Gunn and Safran were pressed at their DC schedule announcement by reporters wanting to know if The Batman Trilogy was still in their ultimate plans. “Yes, it is,” Gunn answered. “Matt [Reeves] is working on [The Batman — Part II], which he thinks of as a Batman Crime Saga, which also includes [The Penguin] series, and it is its own thing. He’s hard at work on that. He came in and pitched us some amazing, really cool stuff the other day. So our plan is for that to continue.”

Safran didn’t mince words either, giving his full support to Reeves’ vision and where they [Gunn and Safran] stand, “The Batman is not a stepchild. It’s all under DC, we are fully invested in the success of The Batman, just like we are everything else.”

ROBERT PATTINSON WILL STILL BE BRUCE WAYNE/ THE BATMAN

Fans who loved Robert Pattinson’s take on the caped crusader will be pleased to know he will definitely be back for The Batman Part II. For now, that is the only star from the first Batman film who we know, without a doubt, will be returning. With that said, there are a few assumptions we can make that will make sense in terms of others who may be joining in the fun that will be The Batman Part II.

First, we can expect Jeffrey Wright to return as James Gordon. He was an excellent choice to play the eventual Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, so expect him to return in that role. No doubt fans will also see the return of Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, the man in charge of the Wayne Estate and who also has the duty of trying to keep Batman alive.

Don’t be surprised if Zoë Kravitz makes her way back for The Batman II. She was a major key factor in the first film as Selena Kyle/Catwoman.

COLIN FARRELL HAS A THE PENGUIN SERIES SET IN THE SAME UNIVERSE

Another figure who looks to be a big part of Batman’s second story is Colin Farrell as the Penguin. Everyone knows (or so we hope everyone knows) that Farrell is in the process of filming the HBO Max spinoff series, The Penguin, that plans to tie in directly with The Batman Part II.

“The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn’t nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to,” Farrell said to Variety while on the red carpet at the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala. “Because there was all this extraordinary work done by [makeup artists] Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.”

While it was the Penguin’s story that intrigued Farrell, he said what ultimately made him want to move forward with the series was the amazing work makeup artists Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine did for him in the first film.

“Honest to god, any thought I had about an extended series was to do with Mike Marino’s work. I just knew there was so much to do with it — age it up, age it down,” Farrell explained. “He’s just such a genius, Mike, so it was his work that was the inspiration, really.”

So, with an almost certainty that Farrell will be back, what about another one or two Rogues Gallery of villains? Will fans see Paul Dano back as the serial killer, The Riddler? What about that “unseen Arkham Prisoner” that popped up at the very end of The Batman? That was actor Barry Keoghan who is believed to be The Joker. Might the Penguin and the Joker be joining forces?  

THE BATMAN PART II WON’T BE ABOUT THE VILLAINS AS MUCH AS PREVIOUS SEQUELS

One thing Matt Reeves wanted to make perfectly clear as he goes about putting together the story that will eventually become The Batman II is that his script will not be making the same mistake some of the other Batman sequels have made. His concentration will be solely on Pattison’s Batman and not the villains that will accompany him moving forward.

“To me, the thing that I really feel is that I also believe that Rob [Pattinson] is so special in the role,” Reeves told Collider. “My goal has always been to do these point-of-view stories that allow the character to always be the emotional center of the story. Because a lot of times what happens is, after you do the first one, then suddenly other Rogues Gallery characters come in, and they kind of take over, and then Batman takes a backseat sort of character-wise, or emotionally.”

DC HAS BIG PLANS FOR ITS MOVIES AND SERIES GOING FORWARD

When Gunn and Safran took the helm of the newly created DC Studios, they had one definite goal in mind and that was to make sure that screenwriting and storytelling came first. Gunn, who is no stranger to how certain studios (Marvel, the previous leaders at Warner Bros) have worked in the past, has a bold vision when it comes to telling their specific stories.

“People have become beholden to [release] dates, to getting movies made no matter what,” Gunn lamented. He was talking, of course, at how many of the studios have fallen into the habit of scheduling the release of their big tent pole films well before they have put together the all-important creative teams. “I’m a writer at my heart, and we’re not going to be making movies before the screenplay is finished.”

And because he and Safran announced the first 10 projects of the new DC film slate, he also said so with this caveat: even though there are specific dates in mind for specific films, if the script is not ready and complete, they will push the film out further until the script is exactly where they want it.

“I’ve seen it happen again and again — it’s a mess,” he said. “It’s the primary reason for the deterioration in quality of films today, versus 20-30 years ago.”

With that in mind, it is the reason that of the 10 new DC films announced, only one, Superman: Legacy, has an actual release date – July 11, 2025. The remainder of the films are all undated and, according to Gunn, will remain so until the scripts are locked in. And Gunn was not shy when he spoke about DC’s film history.

“As everyone here probably knows, the history of DC is pretty messed up, it was fucked up,” Gunn said. He then listed off a few DC TV projects along with a few feature films. “No one was minding the mint. They were just giving away IP like they were party favors to any creators that smiled at them.”

This all bodes well for Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II, as he is not only the director of The Batman Part II, but he will also fill the role of the writer of the film. Reeves teamed up with writer/actor Peter Craig to pen the first Batman film, though it was recently announced that for The Batman Part II, Reeves is enlisting the services of writer Mattson Tomlin. This should not be a surprise, as Tomlin was also a big part of Reeves’ first Batman film (though he didn’t receive any credit), when there became issues with the third act of the film.

Tomlin came in and helped smooth out the story and has since been rewarded by being brought in on the ground floor with The Batman Part II. Tomlin, who is starting to rise in the ranks of wanted screenwriters, had known Reeves previously from the film Mother/Android in which Tomlin wrote and made his directorial debut. Reeves was the producer of that film.

THE BATMAN PART II HAS A RELEASE DATE OF OCTOBER 3, 2025

Along with The Batman II announcement came one more bit of news, that may or may not be good, depending on one’s patience level. The announcement that The Batman Part II was moving forward also came with a release date – October 3, 2025.

Yes, fans still have more than two years of waiting time, which means by the time we get to see Robert Pattinson back under the cowl, three and a half years will have passed. Hopefully, it will be well worth the wait.