Following James Gunn being tapped to run DC Studios with producer Peter Safran, some major waves have been made in the DC movies realm. This includes Wonder Woman 3 being scrapped and Warner Bros. opting not to bring back Henry Cavill as Superman in favor of moving forward with a new reboot centered on the Man of Steel that Gunn is writing. But so these major developments have revolved around the DC Extended Universe continuity; there’s the separate The Batman universe to account for that’s being spearheaded by Matt Reeves, and the filmmaker has how shared his reaction to the DC changes and Gunn’s new role.
Matt Reeves kicked off his run with Gotham City’s Caped Crusader last March with The Batman, and along with currently writing The Batman 2 with Mattson Tomlin, he’s been working on a limited series focused on Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin that’s coming to HBO Max subscribers. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg concerning what this corner of DC media could bring to the table, and while speaking with Yahoo!, Reeves shared that he’s already spoken with James Gunn and will be meeting with him again, along with Peter Safran soon, saying:
We've talked a few times. I'm supposed to get together with him and Peter sometime this month. They've been working feverishly on what they're doing, and I've been working hard with my partners on what we're doing — all our shows and stuff. So we're gonna have a sit-down where we talk about everything that's going on and what the arcs of these two things are. I'm excited to hear about what they're doing.
For those who like the fact that The Batman universe is separate from the DCEU, it doesn’t sound like that will be changing just because James Gunn and Peter Safran are now steering the DC Studios ship. Matt Reeves added that these men have their “big plan” and he has “this big Bat-verse plan,” and this upcoming conversation is just about Gunn and Safran getting to know Reeves. Of course, there’s always the change this could change, and that Robert Pattinson’s Batman could someday be looped into a new shared DC universe. For now though, the only thing on the agenda is for Reeves to get on the same page with Gunn and Safran about what’s to come on both DC fronts.
Though The Batman was originally intended as a vehicle for Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, once Affleck exited the project, Matt Reeves turned it into a reboot focusing on a younger Bruce who’s only been fighting crime in Gotham City for two years. The Batman saw Pattinson’s title protagonist clashing with Paul Dano’s Edward Nashton, a.k.a. The Riddler, a forensic accountant-turned-serial killer who targeted elite and corrupt Gotham City citizens. In addition to Bruce running into Penguin and Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle/Catwoman along the way, the movie’s other notable characters included Jeffrey Wright’s James Gordon, Andy Serkis’ Alfred Pennyworth and John Turturro’s Carmine Falcone.
Along with the projects mentioned earlier, Matt Reeves is working on an HBO Max series centered around Arkham Asylum, and it’s also been reported that projects focused on Batman villains Scarecrow, Clayface and Professor Pyg are in development. So clearly Matt Reeves has ambitious plans for The Batman’s corner of the DC multiverse, and we’ll continue passing along dates on how that’s coming along, as well as more details about what James Gunn and Peter Safran are cooking up. For now, look through our guide of upcoming DC movies to learn what’s still on the slate.
