Recently, Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part II got a year-long delay. It now won’t hit theaters until 2027. In addition, there are conflicting reports that The Brave and the Bold, the DCU’s introduction to its own Batman, is now on hold. That film’s director, Andy Muschietti, even said it was on pause “for a bit.” This has led to rampant speculation, particularly at Forbes, that DC is maybe looking to retcon Matt Reeves’ The Batman, with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, into the new DCU. But we really don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. And we’re here to explain why.
James Gunn’s DCU Is More Fantastical Than Reeves’ Gritty The Batman Universe
There are a lot of reasons why DC Studios and Warner Bros. probably won’t retcon Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe into James Gunn’s DCU. For starters, Gunn has stated several times that his universe is one where superheroes have existed for a long time. We’re not sure how long, but it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that they’ve been around since at least World War II. If G.I. Robot was out killing Nazis in that era, as Creature Commandos showed us, then why not the Justice Society of America too? Nothing in the world of The Batman suggests such fantastical things are happening outside the margins. Reeves clearly designed it as a heightened version of our real world.
We’re not sure when The Batman takes place, but the technology in the film seems very modern to us. It’s almost impossible that The Batman (and The Penguin) are period pieces taking place in the past of the DCU, before the superhero explosion. Gunn’s vision is just more “comic booky” too. Even if it never gets off the ground, the basic synopsis for Batman: The Brave and the Bold suggests what kind of Dark Knight Gunn intends for his universe. It’s one where Batman has had multiple partners named Robin, and the latest one, Damian Wayne, is his own son. Not only is Damian his son, he’s a 10-year-old master assassin. Not to mention the grandson to an immortal despot named Ra’s al Ghul. All of that does not sound like anything that would work in Matt Reeves’ world. Reeves’ take is simply too grounded in reality.
DC Comics Has Always Had “Two Batmans,” a Harder Sell in Live-Action
In the DC Comics, of course, Batman as a character has always existed in two distinct worlds. On the one hand, we’ve got a Caped Crusader who breaks up drug cartels in the slums of Gotham City. This Batman is a vigilante beating up murderous (although theatrical) psychopaths with his bare fists. At DC, this Batman was best exemplified in stories like Batman: Year One, The Killing Joke, or The Cult. But this same Batman, in other stories, ran around with a kid sidekick in bright red, green, and yellow. He fought aliens and monsters with his fellow superheroes in the Justice League. But convincing an audience that Batman has so many different lives going on at once is far harder in live-action than in comics or animation.
Given the success of The Batman and The Penguin, it just makes sense to continue having Pattinson’s Batman proceed as is. That’s what the Elseworlds label for DC is all about in the comics. And it should serve the same function for DC Studios. Batman has been a staple of pop culture for 85 years. We all understand that it’s a myth that has many different interpretations. So audiences won’t get confused when the DCU Batman appears with several teenage crimefighting partners, battling sci-fi villains like Clayface or Man-Bat. True, it might not be good branding to have competing Batman films in the same calendar year. But we don’t think just having two different versions of Batman overall will make the world’s collective brain short circuit. Trust the audience. We’ve been around the block with these superhero universes. We get it.