As a superhero fan, you never want to hear that a comic book movie is getting delayed. Yes, it could be net positive, as the filmmaker now has more time to tinker on a project and get everything right. But as a potential audience member, it just means a much longer wait for the anticipated story. Such is the case for Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part 2, which recently confirmed that it was pushing its release date back a full year, from October 2025 (already a long way off) to October 2026. The root cause of the delay was the strikes that halted production in the film industry. And now I fear that this film’s delay is going to have an even bigger effect on the larger DC universe that James Gunn is launching with Creature Commandos and Superman.
“But Matt Reeves’ The Batman isn’t PART of James Gunn’s universe!” Yes, I know. At the moment, both Reeves’ The Batman and Todd Phillips’ Joker franchise exist as Elseworld film projects, separate from the main continuity but still able to play with DC characters. This means that Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader can face off against a Penguin (Colin Farrell), a Riddler (Paul Dano), a Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) and a Joker (Barry Keoghan), and Gunn can also use those characters in different projects, if he chooses. It’s believed that audiences will understand enough that Pattinson’s Batman isn’t contributing to the world where David Corenswet is Superman. All should be OK with this layout.
There is, however, one major project on the slate of upcoming DC movies that undoubtedly is going to be affected by the delay of The Batman: Part 2, and that’s The Brave and the Bold. Currently expected to be helmed by Andy Muschietti (The Flash), The Brave and the Bold will – according to Gunn – explore the dynamic and dysfunctional father-son relationship between Bruce and Damian Wayne. But when might we see that movie, now that The Batman: Part 2 has been pushed to 2026?
What is The Brave and the Bold?
When James Gunn was announcing chapter 1 of his and Peter Safran’s massive DC overhaul, they included the title The Brave and the Bold alongside movies such as The Authority, Swamp Thing, and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It is believed that these stories will share DNA and interlock in specific ways. Some of them have even begun the casting process.
The Brave and the Bold will return DC to the realm of Batman and Robin stories for the first time since Joel Schumacher played with the Boy Wonder character in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder and Matt Reeves have leaned into Batman as a loner. Hell, in Snyder’s DC universe, Robin had been killed by the Joker. Brutal.
But The Brave and the Bold allegedly plans to borrow from a Batman run of comics penned by Grant Morrison, where Bruce Wayne is mentoring a new Robin in the form of his son, Damian Wayne. And Damian, to put it mildly, is a bit of a psycho, having been raised by his mother, Talia al Ghul, and his grandfather, Ra’s ah Ghul. Damian’s training at the hand of the League of Assassins makes him a lethal killer who doesn’t buy into Batman’s “no killing” rule. Their dynamic is unlike anything we have seen on screen before, and will give the actors cast as Bruce Wayne and Damian Wayne a fun interplay to develop.
Because the Robin in Grant Morrison’s stories is Damian Wayne, this also allows The Brave and the Bold to explore the existence of another character we don’t see nearly enough in DC films (though he has been very active in DC television), and that’s Dick Grayson. The former Robin holds down multiple forts in the DC canon, leading the Teen Titans and fighting crime in Bludhaven as Nightwing. It would be awesome if The Brave and the Bold introduced a fully developed Dick Grayson, who could anchor the rumored Teen Titans movie, help mentor Damian Wayne, and possibly spin off into a Nightwing film, somewhere down the line.
But when?
Delaying The Batman: Part 2 probably delays The Brave and the Bold.
At the moment, the movies that were part of James Gunn’s impressive slate reveal don’t have release dates (outside of Gunn’s own Superman, hitting theaters on July 11, 2025). When you start to think about the normal timeline of a blockbuster film’s production, you can estimate a two- to three-year window and start to guesstimate release dates. Depending on how many movies Gunn and Safran want to have in theaters in a calendar year, many Batman fans probably anticipated The Brave and the Bold would be targeting a 2026 release date, maybe arriving with The Authority to follow up on the momentum created by 2025’s Superman.
Now Matt Reeves’ Elseworld feature The Batman: Part 2 is coming out in October of 2026, so does that eliminate the possibility of The Brave and the Bold coming out that year, as well? And maybe even 2027?
It doesn’t make business sense to have competing Batman movies from the same studio crowding the marketplace. Inevitably, interest in one will overshadow interest in the other, with mainstream crowds at least.
We’re already having the conversation about superhero fatigue at the multiplexes. Will people want to show up for back-to-back Batman movies, even if they are coming from different creators selling different visions? Does WB – the studio that shelved a finished Batgirl movie – want to take that risk?
Putting Reeves’ The Batman: Part 2 in October of 2026 likely means that Summer 2027 is the earliest that WB and DC could introduce The Brave and the Bold into the marketplace. Let’s play out that scenario. WB and DC would have Superman in 2025. Maybe they put The Authority in 2026. And then The Brave and the Bold in 2027. Is one DC movie a year enough to help the studio keep pace with Marvel Studios? Or might Gunn move Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow up on the production cycle, given the fact that recently-cast Milly Alcock is expected to be introduced in Superman? Moving that production up could delay The Brave and the Bold to 2028… or later.
Maybe there isn’t as much continuity in the planned DC universe as we think, and Gunn isn’t trying to do what Marvel did in its first three phases. These films and stories might operate completely independent of one another, so delaying The Brave and the Bold and the introduction of the DCU’s Batman will have no major impact on the overall world. But from the outside, it always seemed that Matt Reeves’ Batman series (as well as Joker) is something that Gunn inherited because they made WB a lot of money, so he tagged them as Elseworld stories and went back to mapping out his massive world. But pushing The Batman: Part 2 creates logistical ripples that WB can’t ignore, and I fear a delay to 2026 for the Pattinson sequel is going to have a direct effect on Muschietti’s Batman film… which will have a greater effect on the DCU during a crucial stage of introduction and development.
