Kevin Smith Missed Out on Seeing the Batman Film in Chicago

Last month, Chicago was transformed into Gotham City when production on The Batman came into town to film a chase sequence on the city’s streets and while the main cast was not there for the filming — a stunt team filmed the sequence instead — getting to see even a glimpse of the production in action was a thrill for fans. However, for Kevin Smith who happened to be in Chicago recently with a recent Mooby’s pop-up, that thrill was not to be. Smith missed out on seeing The Batman film in the Windy City.

In the most recent episode of the Fatman Beyond podcast, Smith explained that while he had been hoping to catch a bit of the filming of The Batman while he was in Chicago, he unfortunately missed out as filming had already been completed.

“I was hoping that I’d catch a little bit of the f–king Batman action because they’re shooting right out there in Chicago,” Smith said. “And on Friday night I was gonna start getting like, tweet out to Matt Reeves and be like ‘what are you shooting that movie, man, can I please come bomb the set?’ but they’re done shooting. All the Chicago stuff apparently, or at least the outdoor stuff, is all wrapped up so I didn’t get to see any Batman be done, but I talked to some people who were like ‘I saw some Batman the other night,’ but that was my weekend.”

While filming on The Batman may be done in Chicago, work on the eagerly anticipated film continues in the United Kingdom despite the latest coronavirus lockdown. Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced that the U.K. go back on lockdown for four weeks starting on November 5th, but while the lockdown guidelines include that people should work from home where possible, film and television production will be permitted to continue — including The Batman.

“As the Prime Minister has just confirmed we will be taking additional restrictions from Thursday. We understand the anxiety & impact these will have and will ensure they last not a day longer than necessary. The changes mean people should WFH [work from home] where possible. But where this is not possible, travel to a place of work will be permitted – e.g. this includes (but not exhaustive) elite sport played behind closed doors, film & tv production, telecoms workers,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden clarified on Twitter last week.

The Batman stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. Zoë Kravitz is playing Selina Kyle, the cat burglar known as Catwoman, who is sometimes romantically entangled with Batman. Paul Dano is Edward Nashton, a version of The Riddler. John Turturro is Carmine Falcone, a Gotham crime boss, while Collin Farrell plays Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin. The film is presently set to open in theaters on March 4, 2022.