Is There a Silver Lining to THE BATMAN: PART II Being Moved to 2027?

December 27, 2024 — a date which will live in…infamy?

Well, maybe for Batman fans.

That was the day it was announced that Matt Reeves’ THE BATMAN: PART II was being pushed back a full year (again) and would now be released on October 1, 2027.  And I, like a lot of folks, was utterly disappointed… angry, even.  Of course, my mind thought of the worst: THE BATMAN: PART 2 will never happen because James Gunn is screwing over Matt Reeves so he can have his DCU Batman, dammit!

After ranting and carrying on, I did what I should’ve done first: Ask some folks who know more than me.

So I did…and discovered that my overreaction was exactly that: An overreaction.  There are legit reasons why the film’s release date was moved to 2027.  For one thing, the WGA/SAG strikes adversely affected the script’s progress.  Secondly, it’s said that Matt Reeves is a meticulous perfectionist and will not turn a script in as “ready” until he’s 100% satisfied with it.  Finally, there appears to have been something personal/on the homefront that kept Reeves from totally focusing on THE BATMAN: PART II for much of last year (2024).  If that is the case (and Reeves has said twice publicly that he had “a lot going on this past year”), then the delay is completely understandable.

Frankly, all the reasons previously listed are understandable.  Is it a bummer that we have a longer wait (again) for the film? Absolutely.  Is it the end of the world as we know it?  Absolutely not.  In fact, it may be a positive, so let me enlighten y’all with the silver lining…

We’ve had a LOT of Batman on film over the last 13 years.  Starting with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in 2012 (which ended Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY), we’ve had appearances of Batman in 6 films (RISES, BATMAN v SUPERMAN, SUICIDE SQUAD, JUSTICE LEAGUE, THE BATMAN, THE FLASH) played by 5 different actors (Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Robert Pattinson, Michael Keaton, George Clooney).

As I said, that’s a lot of Batman on film in a relatively short time. So, wouldn’t it be wise to have a bit of Batman on film break?  You know, get the audience to miss him again?

The answer to that is yes.

As I said, I know it’s disappointing that we must wait 5 years between THE BATMAN and its sequel, which will be the longest time between Batman films in the same series; it bests the time between THE DARK KNIGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES by a year-plus. On the other hand, when it comes to the solo Batman film franchise beginning in 1989, it’s a shorter time than between BATMAN & ROBIN to BATMAN BEGINS (8 years) and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES to THE BATMAN (10 years).

We must remember that we were recently treated to over 8 hours of SAGA content with THE PENGUIN on HBO — a quasi-sequel to THE BATMAN.  Furthermore, we’ll likely get a second season of THE PENGUIN and perhaps another HBO series that’s part of the SAGA before THE BATMAN: PART II.  Thus, by the time PART II gets here, we will have gotten the most in-continuity content of any incarnation of Batman on film (including TV/HBO, of course).  Hell, the SAGA has already done that with the original film and the first HBO/TV spinoff!

The bottom line is that this isn’t about the fans.  The mindset for a lot of us is the more Batman the better.  But frankly, THE BATMAN: PART II isn’t being made for fans; it’s for the general audience and they will determine if the film is a box office success. With so much cinematic Batman and Batmen (Batmans?) over the last several years, it’ll do them some good to miss the old boy.

And it’ll be good for fans too…even if they don’t realize it. – Bill “Jett” Ramey