The DCU’s Batman Must Make Up for a Major Mistake Matt Reeves Made

In a post-Superman world, all eyes are on the Dark Knight. James Gunn’s first DC Universe film goes out of its way to tease Batman’s home, Gotham City, which isn’t all that far from Metropolis. Another Gunn project, Creature Commandos, outright shows the hero as he’s preparing to bust Doctor Phosphorus and toss him in jail. It’s clear that Batman is going to be a major part of the franchise at some point, but there’s one thing complicating matters: Matt Reeves’s Bat-Verse. 2022’s The Batman was a massive success, and Warner Bros. greenlit a sequel almost immediately. However, it’s taken a few years for Reeves to get the script right, delaying the return of Robert Pattinson’s hero.

Gunn probably isn’t too worried about what Reeves is doing because he’s going to want the DCU to take a different approach to the character. That’s a smart move because The Batman architect took things a little too far with his first superhero project. In fact, he made it almost impossible for the hero to have a real future.

The Batman Is Too Grounded for Its Own Good

The Gotham that appears in The Batman is rooted in reality. There’s nothing fantastical about the problems that the city is facing, including corruption, fraud, and drug dealing. Being only a couple of years into his crime-fighting career, there’s still a lot for the Dark Knight to learn. He lets bad guys get the better of him on multiple occasions and doesn’t realize that a big clue to the Riddler’s scheme has been right in front of him the whole time. There’s nothing wrong with a Batman that has room for improvement, but it’s hard to see him growing much, given the constraints that Reeves puts on his world.

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While Reeves and Co. were able to pull off the Riddler, Penguin, and even Joker, it’s going to be tough to bring some of the Caped Crusader’s other villains to life. Christopher Nolan faced a similar problem while making The Dark Knight trilogy, which forced him to pass on major bad guys like Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. However, Reeves can’t afford to rehash Nolan’s ideas and focus on villains with realistic skill sets, especially since his friends at DC Studios are already proving they aren’t afraid to embrace the campiness of the source material.

The DCU’s Batman Can’t Have Any Limitations

There has been plenty of conversation online about bringing Pattinson’s Batman into the DCU. After all, he’s already set up and would make a great foil for David Corenswet’s Superman, who is all about hope and positivity. Reeves doesn’t seem to be interested in making that a reality, though, which leaves the DCU in a tough spot. It needs Batman moving forward, but it can’t use an already popular version of the character. Well, that’s actually a blessing in disguise because the DCU’s Dark Knight already has so much more potential than Reeves’ take.

The Clayface movie is a great place to start when breaking down this argument. There were rumors that the villain’s origin story film was going to take place in the Bat-Verse, but Gunn shot that down as development started ramping up. He explained that a character like Clayface wouldn’t fit into Reeves’ world, which is true. A shape-shifting villain that can turn into a giant clay monster wouldn’t make sense anywhere near Pattinson’s hero. But the DCU is keeping the door open for all possibilities, refusing to put its hero in a box that’s impossible to open.

As both franchises continue, it will become clear which of the two actually loves its characters and which one uses them to create a crime drama that would work even if it didn’t have the DC logo attached to it. There’s a slim chance that Reeves could pivot in The Batman Part II and embrace the ridiculousness of a man in a bat costume, but by the time it arrives in theaters, it might be too late. Reeves had his chance, and he decided to stick to his grounded guns.

The Batman Part II hits theaters on October 1, 2027.

Do you think Matt Reeves made the wrong choice in making The Batman grounded? How do you think the DCU will approach the character? Let us know in the comments below!