With The Batman’s $759 million box office global gross representing a second-best post-pandemic performance of a theatrical film (albeit a far-distant second below the $1.89 billion of Spider-Man: No Way Home), a Warner Bros. greenlight for the sequel was all but inevitable. Consequently, the studio’s now-official sequel announcement has arrived to no one’s surprise. However, with the reboot taking place in a different universe than the studio’s spate of Justice League-connected offerings, the move might just cement The Batman’s bellwether status.
A CinemaCon panel proclamation on Tuesday that The Batman 2 (title to be revealed) is now in development may have been an ostentatious showcase of fait accompli, but the move seemed to serve as an informal coronation for a new king of the studio’s connected DC Extended Universe movies: Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader. It’s an odd dynamic, seeing as the studio is now juggling multiple movie universes, with The Batman’s setting of Earth-2 being completely separate from that of the Justice League heroes, for whom Ben Affleck is Batman. Moreover, Affleck is reprising the role, presumably for just one last time, in 2023’s universe-twisted The Flash, which will also carry the surreal sight of Michael Keaton reprising his role as the Batman from the classic 1989 film. While this all sounds delightfully wild, it also seems to present an unsustainable continuity dynamic. Something’s got to give, right?
There are multiple forces in play that seem set to untangle the untenably intertwined state of the DCEU. Firstly, Warner’s merge-made metamorphosis into Warner Bros. Discovery recently resulted in a shift in leadership to new CEO David Zaslav, who, as Discovery CEO since 2006, elevated the eponymous cable channel to destination television. While not steeped in the genre, Zaslav’s apparent collaborative intentions—which is taking form with a so-called “listening tour” with prominent creators—is expected to yield a formal codification of the existing DCEU, which, besides The Flash, is further manifesting at theaters later this year with the Dwayne-Johnson-starring Black Adam, closely connected sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods and the HBO-Max-aimed Batgirl, along with 2023-scheduled sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Blue Beetle and, farther down the line, a third Wonder Woman film.
Those upcoming offerings—which still operate in the Earth-1 universe spawned from perennially polarizing director Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the Joss Whedon pinch-directed team-up Justice League—are currently caught in a brand-damaging canonical quagmire; one worsened significantly by momentum-killing, memory-diminishing pandemic delays. However, The Batman—fresh off its lucrative 2022 box office success, a recent HBO Max premiere, and auspicious sequel prospects—is currently the shiny, unencumbered new toy resting prominently atop the mega-corporation’s box, making the movie a gravitational force towards which its universe-separated cousins might eventually be pulled. Indeed, that force could be facilitated by The Flash, which will introduce the Multiverse concept to the DCEU with its showcase of multiple Batmen and, apparently, multiple Flashes, the latter of which is a notion increasingly attractive to the studio’s recasting prospects as controversy-embroiled star Ezra Miller’s backlog of alleged violent incidents continues to grow.
Thus, the Multiverse provides the studio with an invaluable excuse for radical casting and canonical changes while still building on its established brand. Indeed, Warner, if given the chance, would undoubtedly jump at the opportunity to finally get all its DCEU ducks in a row by positioning its new, Earth-2-separated Batman into the same Earth-1 cinematic sandbox as its few existing success cases, that being Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, all while continuing to chart new medium ground on HBO Max, as recently exemplified by the John-Cena-starring TV series, Peacemaker, which recently saw the WWE’s former jorts-sporting franchise face reprising his role from 2021 supervillain team-up sequel The Suicide Squad. Pertinently, long before the sequel confirmation, The Batman’s Earth-2 arena was already set to expand with not one, but two planned, currently untitled serial television projects. One of them is focused on the Gotham City Police Department (presumably featuring Jeffrey Wright’s Commissioner Gordon) and the other centers on Colin Farrell’s film take on classic villain the Penguin—both of which are world-building endeavors that would better serve a single cinematic universe rather than a divided one.
Speculation on the DCEU’s future aside, the meticulousness of its monolithic, Mouse-curated competitor, the Disney-owned Marvel Studios and its 2008-launched Marvel Cinematic Universe, continues to enjoy a seemingly insurmountable lead over its DC rivals. Plus, the growing array of Disney+ television offshoots—currently embodied by the darker dive of Moon Knight—continue to expand said lead with each passing day. Thus, any realistic attempt on the part of DC to legitimately compete will first require studio leadership that’s unafraid to take creative chances on off-the-wall projects and avoid kowtowing (in a soulless corporate manner) to metrics and the kind of superficial shortsightedness that made 2017’s hastily built Justice League into a costly box office boondoggle (not to be confused with the 4+ hour 2021 redux from dismissed original director Zack Snyder). Regardless of the approach, the DCEU’s success has to hinge on a single, stable, codified cinematic universe in which audiences can become emotionally invested. It’s a tall order, but, given the DCEU’s current rudderless state, seems to be a requirement for consumer confidence, especially given the franchise’s checkered, sometimes-controversial past.
For now, the DCEU will return with Black Adam, a film that, utilizing a strategy akin to Sony’s increasingly esoteric cold-intro Spider-Man spinoffs, will see megastar Dwayne Johnson headline as the traditional DC Comics antagonist/antihero to Shazam. That film is set to arrive on October 21, and will be quickly followed up by its comic cousin’s sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which makes a Christmas season debut on December 16.
