The Batman may be closer to a production start than we initially thought.
Amid reports that the Matt Reeves solo movie had been placed on ice until such time as Warner Bros. gauged the success of upcoming DCEU releases – think Aquaman, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984 – notorious tipster DanielRPK has uncovered new evidence which suggests that the studio may instead be making some kind of announcement about the project tomorrow.
What exactly they’ll be telling us is unknown, but the Twitter user – who has a pretty good track record – revealed tonight that an update will arrive on July 25th, it just won’t be from him. Presumably, that means WB, or maybe even Reeves himself, is getting ready to break the silence, and that’s very exciting to hear.
Of course, the million-dollar question surrounding the project at the moment is who will come in to replace Affleck as the Dark Knight? Jake Gyllenhaal appears to be out of the question entirely, having signed on to play the villainous Mysterio in Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, but if one thing’s for certain, it’s that Matt Reeves is seemingly gunning for a clean slate when it comes to The Batman. And after the relatively poor receptions to both Batman V Superman and Justice League, can you blame him?
Rumor has it that the director wants to roll back the years for a Batman Begins-like origins tale – hence the reports saying that that his long-gestating standalone pic takes place in the 1980s and includes narrative ties to the Joker movie. And we’re talking about Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips’ antihero film, not the planned solo outing for Jared Leto’s own Crown Prince of Crime.
Without an official start date to call its own, though, it seems the Bat-shaped rumor mill will only continue to operate at full tilt. With any luck, then, we’ll finally get something concrete on The Batman tomorrow. Stay tuned for more.