Matt Reeves’ The Batman should be a new dawn for the character. It’s been almost a decade since the last Batman solo movie and Robert Pattinson’s take on the Dark Knight looks to take some interesting departures from previous films featuring the hero. But sadly, you’re going to have wait a little longer to see it.
Like all major productions currently filming, The Batman has had to put its shoot on hiatus due to the Coronavirus pandemic. As such, it’s abandoned its June 25th, 2021 release in favor of October 1st, 2021 – just like we told you it would a few weeks back, when we reported that WB was planning to delay it.
The pic is being shot in Pinewood Studios and on location in the United Kingdom, which has been on lockdown for a month now. We’re not out of the woods yet, either, as there’s just been confirmation that restrictions on movement there will remain in place for another three weeks at minimum. So, even in the best case scenario, The Batman will have lost two months of production time. As what’ll be the launch title for a new Bat-franchise, they need to nail this movie and so, have (correctly) decided not to rush it.
Of course, Warner Bros. won’t have arrived at this decision lightly. The last weekend in June is one of the most sought-after release dates in the calendar, with studios carefully arranging their releases to avoid major conflicts. The Batman not premiering until October means that it’ll come out at a time generally considered to be a bit of a quiet patch for Hollywood, usually reserved for horror titles released in the run-up to Halloween.
The Batman isn’t the only DCEU movie to have had its release date reshuffled, either. The Flash will now hit cinemas on June 3rd, 2022, while Shazam! 2 won’t land until November 4th, 2022. All of which indicates that we’re going to be feeling the impact of COVID-19 on the box office long after the virus itself has become history (hopefully). So, while 2020 might see historic box office lows, don’t expect 2021 to be a bumper year to compensate.