In news that won’t be much of a surprise to anyone, today, at CinemaCon, Warner Bros. chief Toby Emmerich announced a sequel to Matt Reeves’ successful “The Batman” is in the works with Robert Pattinson in the lead once more.
Again, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, “The Batman” was always intended as a new trilogy, and all it needed to do was make bank at the global box office and make bank it did. “The Batman” has made over $760 million worldwide so far. Those numbers are higher than DCEU films like “Man Of Steel,” “Justice League,” and “Suicide Squad” and didn’t have to deal with a global pandemic. Under normal, optimal conditions, the film could have potentially even outgrossed “Batman Vs. Superman,” which would have been huge given it’s a do-over reboot with an actor that generally doesn’t lead tentpole films.
As is, “The Batman” has been a huge smash, and having just hit HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery has already described it as a huge hit for the service.
“Thank you all for your tremendous support for ‘The Batman.’ We couldn’t have gotten here without the faith and enthusiasm of all your teams worldwide. “I’m excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter,” director Matt Reeves said briefly on stage at CinemaCon.
What that next chapter is unclear, but surely much of that core Gotham cast, like Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, for example, will definitely return. As for Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle / Catwoman? That one might be up in the air given the end of the original film, but who knows.
No date has been set for “The Batman 2,” but Warner Bros. and HBO Max still have many Batman tricks left up their sleeve, like a “Penguin” show on HBO Max starring Colin Farrell and another spin-off series said to revolve around Arkham Asylum. Barry Keoghan made a cameo appearance as the Joker in the original film. While Reeves has basically shot down the idea that he could be the next film’s villain, he could still be similarly lurking about in the shadows, potentially ready to be sprung from prison in the third film.
“The Batman” hit viewership numbers of 4.1M households on HBO Max in its first week (via Deadline), which topped similar numbers for WB day-and-date movies last year as “Suicide Squad” “Dune,” “Wonder Woman 1984″ and “The Matrix Resurrections.” We all knew a sequel was likely coming, but the announcement coming this fast on the heels of its HBO Max debut is definitely a huge sign of confidence.