While The Batman will be separate from the main continuity of the DCEU, big plans are underway for the Matt Reeves-directed film. The film, while focusing on Batman's younger years, won't be an origin story and he is referring it to "Year Two" while the upcoming Gotham PD limited series for HBO Max will delve into the corruption deeper than a feature film could and will go back to Year One, Batman’s first appearance, and how the cops view the change in Gotham. But with the film, Reeves went into more specifics of the stage Batman is in in relation to the city he protects:
“It’s early and Batman’s still a vigilante. [Gotham’s people] wonder, ‘That guy sounds a little dangerous.’ He’s not yet the symbol of hope yet… He’s still a growing legend. People wonder whether he exists. It’s one of the things he will confront in the story. [Bruce is] trying to figure out what he can do to improve Gotham. And that’s when the murders start to happen and those start to tell the history of Gotham.”
Also, the film's main narrative, a murder mystery where Batman is hunting for the Riddler who is killing people around the city, will allow the film to serve as an origin for many of the character’s rogue’s gallery with all new takes on both them and how Gotham City has been portrayed before. Reeves adds about the city:
“It’s just as important as any of the rogues gallery. I wanted to present it in a way that was really fleshed out. I wanted it to feel like an American city you’ve never been to.”
Reeves went on to cite Darwyn Cooke’s Batman: Ego as source material that inspired him, as was the film Chinatown and various other 1970's street set crime movies like The French Connection. The feature was seven weeks into a several month shoot (with just 25% of the film shot) when the coronavirus pandemic shut it down but will resume production in early September and will run for the rest of the year with Liverpool being one of the key locations.
Despite all of this, a teaser trailer was released at DC FanDome which presents a version of the character more like a detective (Who seems to work with the police more openly than in past iterations). Check it out below:
The Batman stars Robert Rattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, James Gordon, Andy Serkis, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jayme Lawson. It is set to hit theaters October 1st, 2021.
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