Highly anticipated by fans of The Batmanthe second volume of Matt Reeves’ trilogy is long overdue. Recently, we learned that the film had been postponed to… 2027, causing incomprehension and anger among fans. Producer James Gunn spoke out to defend his colleague.
The Batman: James Gunn’s answer
For many spectators, the release of The Batman by Matt Reeves in 2022 was a breath of fresh air. Faced with an MCU which seems to be stuttering since the end of phase 3 and a moribund DCEU – and since buried -, the director’s proposal to Planet of the Apes proved once again that it was possible to produce demanding cinema with comic book adaptations. Mixing inspirations ranging fromUn long Halloween from Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale to the cinema of David Fincher, Matt Reeves delivered a film noir about the corruption of Gotham City and revenge. The feature film, which was very well received by critics and the public alike, was announced as the first part of a trilogy and the first milestone in a new Batverse, independent of the DCU on which James Gunn is working in parallel .
Two years later, Matt Reeves’ Batverse was enriched with the excellent series The Penguinairing this fall on HBO. Taking place a week after the events of The Batmanshe invites us to follow the rise of Oswald Cobblepot in Gotham’s crime scene. The series thus prepares the plot of The Batman: Part II – which we learned had changed its official title – and made us want to discover it even more. However, while it was first postponed to fall 2026, the second film in the trilogy has just been pushed back to October 1, 2027.
This new change of program has created some confusion among fans, a confusion maintained by certain influencers who accuse without evidence James Gunn of wanting to cancel the trilogy The Batman in case of failure of the film Superman. The American director, appointed artistic director of DC Studios in 2022, had already explained on his social networks that the script for the film was not finished, and that this therefore required a change of schedule. But the discontent is still being heard, pushing James Gunn to speak out on the social network Threads, in order to put an end to the rumors.
To be fair, a gap of 5 years or more is pretty common in sequels. 7 years between Alien et Aliens. 14 years old be The Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminator. 13 years between Avatar. 36 years between Top Gun. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 et vol. 3.
Although the arguments are not all relevant, given the fact thatAlien, The Incredibles, Terminator et Top Gun were initially designed to be solo films, it must nevertheless be admitted that production times tend to lengthen more and more in Hollywood. The major American studios are increasingly used to announcing projects several years in advance, without any script being written. Furthermore, the economic difficulties experienced by certain Hollywood majors, starting with Warner Bros. Discovery, and the strikes that hit the American entertainment industry last year resulted in longer production times.
The world of series demonstrates this quite well: while a year separated the different seasons of Game of Thronesit is now necessary to count two years between two seasons of House of the Dragon. Same observation for the series Harry Potterannounced in 2023 and which should be released by 2027. At Netflix, season 5 of Stranger Things has been awaited since 2022 and will not be released until 2025, while season 2 of Squid Game has only just been released, ending a three-year wait.
