When Robert Pattinson takes over the role of Batman in Matt Reeves’s planned trilogy, the character he plays will have no ties to existing DC movies, including the recently-concluded run of Ben Affleck Batman appearances, according to Deadline. Buried in the story which confirmed Pattinson would be the next actor to portray the Dark Knight was a line that said, “This film will in no way carry on the work that Ben Affleck did as the older Batman in Batman v Superman and Justice League.” That more or less confirms what fans have long suspected: that Matt Reeves’s The Batman will not tie into the Zack Snyder films.
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Whether that means Pattinson’s Batman will not cross over with any DC characters is another question — and is currently anybody’s guess. Characters from Gotham City are slated to appear in the upcoming films The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), so it would not be unreasonable to suspect Pattinson might at some point share the screen with at least some of those actors. That said, the disappointment of Justice League seems to have nudged Warner Bros. back in the direction of making more stand-alone superhero movies which, while they might exist in a shared universe with projects like Justice League, are not the same kind of continuity porn that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice became.
Besides the massively-successful Dark Knight trilogy from filmmaker Christopher Nolan, most of DC’s other hits have had relatively minor connective tissue between movies. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam! all explicitly exist within the same world that Justice League did, but make sparing reference to events outside of their own narrative. Each of these movies were hits with critics and fans and, to varying degrees, financial successes (Shazam! wasn’t the hit Wonder Woman or Aquaman was, but still made almost four times its production budget at the worldwide box office). While Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad were both big financial hits, they were controversial enough that Warners has been trying to have their cake and eat it too, continuing the brand (in Justice League and James Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad) while making big changes to the formula along the way. The approach did not work for Justice League, but fans’ outlook is far more bullish on The Suicide Squad.
Upcoming DC movies include Joker on October 10th, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.
