Although Ben Affleck’s been playing Batman in the DC Extended Universe since 2016, audiences haven’t gotten a live-action solo movie starring DC Comics’ Caped Crusader since The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. That will finally change at the beginning of March with the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and if you’ve been looking forward to seeing Robert Pattinson wear the cape and cowl, strap in. Following days of conflicting reports, it’s been confirmed that The Batman will have a nearly three-hour runtime.
According to insiders from Warner Bros. who spoke with THR, The Batman will run for two hours and 55 minutes, which includes eight minutes worth of credits. That makes this the longest Batman-led movie yet, surpassing The Dark Knight Rises, which was two hours and 45 minutes long. However, if we’re looping in any movie that features Batman, then Zack Snyder’s Justice League still holds the crown at four hours and two minutes, though that version never played in theaters. Avengers: Endgame is still the longest-running theatrically-released superhero movie at three hours and one minute.
So there’ll be plenty to absorb in Robert Pattinson’s first outing as Batman, meaning those who go to see The Batman in theaters will need to make sure they’re properly supplied with concessions and have visited the bathroom before they sit down. Normally a movie running around three hours would mean it’d have a diminished amount of showings throughout the day, but since this is a blockbuster event, you can be sure that Warner Bros. will be putting it on a lot of screens to make up the difference.
Originally The Batman was being developed as a standalone movie that would have seen Ben Affleck’s version of the Gotham City-based vigilante fighting Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, with Affleck also set to direct and co-write the script. However, eventually Affleck bowed out of his behind-the-scenes duties, and Matt Reeves of Cloverfield fame (among other movies) was hired to take over. By 2019, it was officially confirmed that Affleck would no longer star in The Batman, and by the end of May 2019, Robert Pattinson was officially announced as the new lead.
Set during his second year of fighting crime in Gotham City (and outside of the DCEU), The Batman follows Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne pursuing Paul Dano’s Edward Nashton, a.k.a. The Riddler, a serial killer who’s targeting elite Gotham City citizens. Along the way, Bruce will learn more about the corruption plaguing the city and how it connects to his own family. The main cast also includes Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson. Matt Reeves worked on the script with The Unforgivable’s Peter Craig.
The Batman casts its shadows in theaters on March 4, and will premiere on HBO Max 45 days later. In addition to sequels being planned, this corner of the DC multiverse is also being expanded through HBO Max spinoff shows centered on the Gotham City Police Department and The Penguin, respectively.
