New Batman Movie Update Confirms DCU’s Approach to the Dark Knight

DC Studios head James Gunn is waiting for the right story before bringing Batman to the big screen again.

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Photo: DC Comics. Photo: DC Comics

Where is the Batman? Lately, that’s a question asked not just by Gotham City criminals, but by superhero movie fans as well. With The Batman and The Penguin winning over fans to Matt Reeves‘s realistic take on the world of the Dark Knight and DC Studios relaunching their universe, expectations for the Caped Crusader have never been higher.

While speaking with Collider, DC Studios co-head James Gunn provided an update about the future of the Batman in the revamped DCU.

“There’s no set timeline for anything,” Gunn said. “The one thing that I’ve tried to make clear to people from the beginning, and the way that I hope we’re different, is that everything in DC is gonna be based on the writers. Until we have a screenplay that I’m totally happy with, that movie is not going to get made, no matter what it is.”

In other words, the announced Batman DCEU movie The Brave and the Bold is still in the script writing stage, despite having a director in Andy Muschietti of The Flash and It. However, the movie does not yet have a writer attached, which fits with the bullpen approach that Gunn and co-head Peter Safran are taking. As soon as they took over, Gunn and Safran put together a writer’s room that includes Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods), Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, or the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), Jeremy Carver (Doom Patrol), Christal Henry (Watchmen), and comic book writer Tom King.

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As of this point, Gunn and Muschietti haven’t revealed which specific writers will be spearheading Brave and the Bold. However, they have pointed to the movie’s origins in Grant Morrison‘s excellent run from the 2000s, which developed Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul. Brave and the Bold will be the first time Robin has appeared in a live-action Batman film since the ill-fated Joel Schumacher movies of the 1990s, which only intensifies expectations.

But Gunn isn’t wavering from his story-first approach, which he believes is already yielding compelling projects.

“We have been really fortunate with some screenplays,” he told Collider. “Supergirl came in, and just, wow, Ana [Nogueira] did such an amazing job. The Lanterns pilot came in, and now the whole Lantern series came in, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s wonderful, wonderful work.'” In fact, he’s so excited about this process that he’s applying it to some secret projects. “There are a couple of other things that people don’t know about. There are a couple of movies and TV shows that are green-lit or near-green-lit. But it’s going to be based, always, on the story because, at the end of the day, if we’re happy with the story that we’re telling, that’s what matters most.

“And once Brave and the Bold gets to that point, then we’ll make the movie,” Gunn concluded. “That’s really all it is.”

So where is Batman? He’s in the imagination of writers taking the time to craft the right script about the Dark Knight and his snotty assassin son, and won’t start making his ways to theaters until that script is set.