DC Head James Gunn Shoots Down Batman Spinoff Reports (And We’re Not Happy)

Earlier this week, it was reported that Barry Keoghan’s Joker was rumored for not only a major role in a future movie but his own series as well. Now, DC Studios co-head James Gunn is setting the record straight. In a post to Threads, Gunn debunked the rumor about a Joker series writing that the idea hasn’t even come up or been discussed at this time.

“Turn on threads and everyone is asking me about this,” Gunn wrote. “No there is absolutely no truth to this. A Joker series is not being discussed nor has even come up at this time. Sorry.”

The idea of a Joker spinoff series not unlike The Penguin was first reported from Derek Faraci in the Marvelvision podcast with that report indicating that Keoghan’s Joker won’t be a part of The Batman Part II but would be the central villain of The Batman Part III as well as that a series for the Joker would come before that.

[RELATED: The Penguin’s Colin Farrell Thinks He’s Returning for The Batman Sequel (But There’s a Catch)]

Now, Gunn debunking the report doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been discussion about more shows set in the world of The Batman. In an interview with Interview, The Batman director Matt Reeves spoke about the discussion of the future of The Batman’s universe, particularly that there’s been talk of more shows and not necessarily another season of The Penguin.

“Yeah. We have been talking, and it’s exciting because people are now embracing the show. My fantasy is coming into being, which is very exciting, and HBO has been incredibly supportive from the beginning,” Reeves said. “Now to see that the show is being embraced is really, really exciting. We have been talking about doing other shows. I wanted to make sure that we didn’t do the origin tale, which so many of the other series have done. I think the idea of being able to put a lens on these characters is a really exciting idea. It’s about cities and their dysfunction and the world and its dysfunction, which is what Batman stories are all about. They’re all about Gotham being a place that should be better. And you can have that experience of this most novelistic epic crime saga, but you also just get these separate experiences. They have their own dramatic value. So, Oz’s story is Oz’s story, and the idea is to do these other stories in the same way”

Gunn confirming that a Joker series isn’t in the works and hasn’t even been discussed will come as a disappointment to fans. Not only is the Joker an extremely popular character generally, but it is also a character that is generally very central to Batman’s overall mythos. While the hero has plenty of major villains, it’s the Joker that is most associated with the character. More than that, fans have been eager to see Keoghan more extensively in the role after first seeing him as the iconic villain in the five-minute deleted scene from 2022’s The Batman — Keoghan also made a cameo appearance as the character in the film. While that appearance was, according to Reeves, never intended to be a tease or set up for more to come, it gave fans a solid taste of the villain as part of The Batman world they’ve been asking about ever since. The idea that nothing appears to be on the horizon at this point, well, it feels just like a bad joke.

As for what is happening in the world of The Batman, The Batman Part II is dated for an October 2, 2026, release while the season finale of The Penguin airs Sunday, November 10th on HBO.