Few DCEU solo movies have fans more excited than Matt Reeves' upcoming Batman film. The War for the Planet of the Apes director is hot off of the critical success of his latest franchise outing, and the inherent appeal of another Batman movie has piqued the interest of many fans. With that said, don't expect to see the solo Batman movie (a.k.a The Batman) debut on the big screen anytime soon, as it sounds like the film might not even begin production until sometime in 2019.
The solo Batman movie has been hit with delay after delay, evolving quite a bit since the original version of the film that Ben Affleck would've helmed. According to a new rumor reported by Heroic Hollywood, Matt Reeves is still lined up to direct the Batman movie, but it won't go into production until sometime in 2019. Depending on when in 2019 the film would enter production, this would seemingly suggest a 2020 or 2021 release window. This delay actually makes a certain degree of sense, as Reeves recently inked a deal to produce Life Sentence for Netflix, which would make his Batman movie challenging to turn around quickly.
One interesting thing to note about the solo Batman movie presumably debuting after Flashpoint is that it doesn't inherently guarantee that Ben Affleck will appear in Reeves' film. As many DC fans already know, Flashpoint is a time travel story, and its importance to the Batman mythos could potentially open up room for Ben Affleck to leave the role and make room for another actor to enter the equation. Some rumors have posited that Matt Reeves is looking to replace Affleck with actors like Nightcrawler actor Jake Gyllenhaal or Baby Driver's Jon Hamm, but as of right now, no major decisions have been made public.
DC is not hurting for projects to put in development at this stage of the game. Warner Bros. has already begun production on David F. Sandberg's Shazam!, with Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman 2 expected to come next, and Todd Philips' Joker origin movie expected to follow suit after that. The DC slate is continuously changing as new additions are made, and old projects are cycled out, but this seems to be the tentative schedule that we have to work with right now.
Only time will tell if the DCEU's Bruce Wayne will don the cape and cowl again in 2019. Until we learn more, Bat-fans can stay tuned for more updates related to the solo Batman movie and check out our 2018 movie premiere guide. As for 2018's DC release, keep an eye out for James Wan's Aquaman, which will hit theaters later this year on December 21.
