James Gunn has been a little busy of late. He’s directed a new Superman movie that has revealed it will be dropping its first teaser this week. The first chapter of his new DC Universe, Creature Commandos, recently debuted. And there’s also Peacemaker Season 2 on the way. However, James Gunn has another nearly full-time job, debunking rumors, mostly, it seems for The Batman Part II.
There have been numerous rumors regarding just what The Batman Part II will be about, what villains or other characters might appear, and what actors may play them. There have even been some rumors that The Batman Part II will never actually happen. James Gunn took to Threads to debunk the latest rumor, that Clayface and Scarecrow will both appear in the next movie. Gunn says that’s not the case, and reiterates that nothing about what will be in the next Batman movie could be known, as the script doesn’t yet exist. Gunn said…
Firstly, no. Secondly, couldn’t be the case as there hasn’t yet been a first draft of a script.
Gunn has cautioned before about people making too many assumptions regarding any movie that doesn’t have a script. Many of the rumors regarding upcoming DC movies regard their casting, and Gunn has been clear that casting doesn’t start before there is a finished script.
The end of The Batman did tease a future appearance by the Joker, so some likely expect to see him appear in the next movie. Barry Keoghan says he’s heard nothing, but that’s not necessarily a surprise since there’s no script yet. It’s also suggested that Joker won’t appear in a major way until the third film in the planned Batman trilogy, so if that’s the case, the new movie does need a villain, if not more than one.
It’s at least possible to see where some of these new rumors might have come from. Gunn himself recently confirmed that a DCU Clayface project was in development, so somebody might have made some connections there. Of course, based on what Gunn said, it sounds like the Clayface concept will be part of the main DC Universe, and so wouldn’t be connected to Matt Reeves Batman. But rather the version of Batman who will appear in The Brave and the Bold, the planned Batman movie being directed by Andy Muschietti.
The Batman Part II has an official release date but it’s not until October 2026, so there’s plenty of time for the script to be finished and for production to get started and hit that date. Having said that, filming will need to happen sometime next year, so the script will need to be finished sooner rather than later.
