The Batman continues to go through growing pains. After Matt Reeves agreed to the direct the film, there has been a lot of speculation about Ben Affleck’s involvement and when the movie will get made given the rest of the DCEU schedule.
As it turns out, The Batman may not have to worry about the rest of the DCEU. It’s not a DCEU movie.
In an interview on The Business podcast with Kim Masters, Reeves said Warner Bros. approached him and said that The Batman would be a standalone movie. That means they enticed Reeves by saying his movie would not need to connect to the DCEU. Reeves added that he has his own potential Batman trilogy in mind. (Whether or not that trilogy feature Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader remains to be seen. It’s definitely looking less likely.)
You can listen to the Matt Reeves interview here, with Batman talk starting around 15:45. The whole interview is interesting, and includes lots of talk about War for the Planet of the Apes and the Apes trilogy, and some talk about indie directors suddenly taking on tentpole projects.
Reeves confirms he briefly dropped out as director of The Batman before changing his mind, and also takes a healthy, cavalier attitude about the project: “Here’s the thing: I’m also totally fine not doing Batman. It’s not like I want to do any version of Batman. I want to do my version of Batman. And if that’s exciting to them [Warner Bros.], which so far everything we’ve talked about is, then that’s incredibly exciting, because that means, wow, we’re going to do something that we’re all excited about. And if they’re not, it’s completely their prerogative.”
During the interview, Reeves drew a parallel between Batman and Caesar of the Apes movies that indicates how he may approach the Dark Knight. “Here is a tortured soul who is trying to grapple within himself to find a way to do the right thing in a world that is corrupt, in a world that is imperfect. The stories would be about that struggle.” Reeves went on to note taking an intimate noir approach to Batman given the nature of these sorts of stories.
We’ll get a better sense of Reeves’ take on Batman in the months ahead. We should also get a better understanding of how these non-DCEU DC movies–like that Todd Phillips/Martin Scorsese Joker origin movie–will work in the coming months.
The Batman stands alone
The Batman stands alone
Heigh ho the derry-o
The Batman stands alone
