James Gunn’s new DCU will already have a metric ton of superheroes in it, going back 300 years. But the character status in the DCU everyone is dying to know about isn’t metahuman at all, it’s Batman. We know the Dark Knight exists already in the DCU, as we’ve seen Batman in silhouette in Creature Commandos. In a new interview, Gunn reiterated how important it is that the DCU Batman is developed correctly. Especially given the character’s importance not just to DC Studios, but to Warner Bros. as a whole. Here’s what he had to say on the subject of the DCU’s version of the Caped Crusader to Rolling Stone:
Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally. And it’s not — I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it right, because he’s incredibly important to DC, as is Wonder Woman. So outside of the stuff that I’m doing in the projects that are actively going, our two priorities are finishing our Wonder Woman and our Batman script. Batman has to have a reason for existing, right? So Batman can’t just be ‘Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,’ which he is. But because there’s a need for him in the DCU and a need that he’s not exactly the same as Matt [Reeves’] Batman. But yet he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it’s — I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality.
For anyone who thought that Gunn’s propensity for humor meant the DCU’s Batman was going to be a bulked-up version of Adam West’s campy portrayal, you can relax. That definitely doesn’t seem to be the case. All we know about the DCU Batman right now is that he will have a “Bat-family,” including several Robins. Gunn revealed this when he announced The Brave and the Bold in 2023. That right there will separate him from the Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson iterations. But as years of animated Batman series have taught us, Batman working with partners doesn’t mean it has to be silly. As a lifelong comic book fan, who cites The Long Halloween and Court of Owls among his favorite Batman comics, we trust that Gunn fully gets the character. We say, “Let him cook.”
Content shared from nerdist.com.