These days, it seems like Hollywood is bending over backwards to bring franchises to life, and DC Films isn’t immune to such an accusation. As the DCEU grows, the company is continuing work to branch out its superhero avenues. So, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear Batman may get his own standalone trilogy in the DCEU if all goes well.
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Ben Affleck’s Batman has acted as connective tissue weaving the DCEU together since he debuted, and the hero may get a dedicated spotlight soon enough. Once Justice League premieres, the Gotham icon will next star in The Batman, and director Matt Reeves isn’t opposed to the standalone kicking off a trilogy.
Recently, Reeves sat down with Fandango to discuss his work on War for the Planet of the Apes. The director took time during the interview to address The Batman, and Reeves admitted he has thought about doing full arc.
When asked if The Batman could start a new Batman trilogy, Reeves said, “I have ideas about an arc, but really, the important thing is just to start… you have to start with one.”
Reeves words are echoing a sentiment which many moviegoers are preaching these days. Hollywood’s desperate search for franchise material has steamrolled some C-Grade films into theaters, and audiences are not impressed. Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’ franchise already planned out future films before its lackluster entrance with The Mummy was about to disappoint. Rather than letting a franchise grow organically, some studios are pre-planning series with the vain hope everything works out. And, so far, many of these attempts have failed to launch.
“You know, you have to start with a story that begins something,” Reeves stressed. “I would be lying if I could tell you that the arcs of Apes was already planned out, because it simply wasn’t; it’s one of those things where that character was so potent, and the possibility was embedded from the beginning, but exactly how you’ve got from A to Z is not something that existed.”
“In fact, when I came in on Dawn, the story that I wanted to tell was different from the story that they had even presented me,” he continued. “And so, there are these broad ideas, I think, that sort of came to mind as Rise was created, of how that story could be told, but they weren’t explicitly laid-out. And when Mark and I began Dawn, we knew what our goals were, but we didn’t know how we were gonna get there, and I would say that that more relates to the way that I see a Batman story, is a kind of ambition for a series of stories, but really the most important thing is gonna be to tell a vital first story.”
There is little reason to believe DC Films would be adverse to a full-on Batman trilogy. If The Batman pulls in the kind of response Wonder Woman did in June, the DCEU will have another bonafide hit on its hands. The exploration of a trilogy would level-up The Batman, drawing inevitable comparisons between it and Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight run. But, for now, it looks like all Reeves wants to focus on is making sure The Batman is just a good movie in and of itself.
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Next up for DC and WB is Justice League, and you can find the official synopsis below. Justice League currently has a 4.16 out of 5 on ComicBook.com’s anticipation rankings. The full synopsis can be found below.
In Justice League, fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired bySuperman‘s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Justice League is directed by Zack Snyder, from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, and features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill(Superman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ezra Miller (The Flash), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg), Ciarán Hinds (Steppenwolf), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Jeremy Irons (Alfred Pennyworth), J.K. Simmons (Commissioner Gordon), Amber Heard (Mera), Kiersey Clemons (Iris West) and Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor).
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