Batman Fans Get a Reason to Celebrate as DC’s James Gunn Shoots Down a Major Rumor

Batman currently occupies a fascinating place in the DC Comics cinematic landscape. As director Matt Reeves prepares to commence production on the long-awaited The Batman Part II (due in theaters October 2027), DC Studios is busy developing a separate live-action feature starring the character, The Brave and the Bold. The latter is part of the mainline DC Universe timeline, while Reeves’ films take place in a separate continuity. This is a rather unprecedented situation, and people are curious to see how DC balances two ongoing live-action Batman film series. Some have wondered if DC Studios will wait until Reeves completes his trilogy to move forward on The Brave and the Bold, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.

Responding to fan queries on Threads, Gunn fielded a question from someone wondering if The Brave and the Bold won’t hit theaters until after The Batman Part 3. Gunn responded with a simple “Nope” and didn’t shed any additional light on where things stand regarding The Brave and the Bold.

The DCU Shouldn’t Wait to Introduce Its Batman

It’s easy to understand the rationale behind the Batman rumor Gunn is debunking. Instead of trying to manage a pair of blockbuster Batman movie franchises simultaneously, holding The Brave and the Bold until Reeves wraps up his trilogy would arguably make things easier. Warner Bros. and DC could focus on keeping the spotlight on just one series at a time as opposed to juggling both at once. There’s a risk of casual viewers becoming confused if they see a new live-action Batman pop up while Robert Pattinson’s series is still ongoing. There are die-hard fans that follow the ins and outs of the film industry on a daily basis, but a large portion of the target audience might be unaware of Gunn’s plan.

Still, DC is taking necessary steps to ensure this won’t be too much of an issue. Gunn has said he doesn’t want The Brave and the Bold to debut in the same calendar year as The Batman Part II, so it’d be reasonable to assume the same will hold true for The Batman Part III. This is a way to keep the two series separated while not delaying the arrival of the DCU’s Batman. The Brave and the Bold also has the potential to be a very different type of film when compared to The Batman. In contrast from Reeves’ realistic, grounded approach, The Brave and the Bold could embrace more comic book sensibilities. It’s also telling a story about Bruce Wayne’s dynamic with his son Damian and should feature members of the Bat Family, so there’s enough there to clearly communicate to the audience it’s not the same as Pattinson’s iteration.

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Concerns about confusing viewers might have been more warranted at the turn of the century when the superhero movie boom was in its earliest stages. There was a necessity to keep things relatively simple and streamlined so casual audiences could follow along. Today’s viewers are savvier about comic book adaptations, following along with multiversal narratives that star variants of a particular hero. As long as the marketing campaigns are handled properly, people should have little trouble understanding Pattinson and the DCU’s Batman are not one and the same.

Gunn is smartly in no rush to bring The Brave and the Bold to the big screen, but it would also be unwise for DC Studios to drag its feet on this front for too long. Batman is such a key character in the DC mythos that he arguably can be absent from a major shared cinematic universe for only so long — especially since the DCU’s Gotham City will be a locale seen in this fall’s Clayface. As Gunn and Co. continue to build out the overarching DCU narrative, relegating Batman to the sidelines for the foreseeable future would limit the kinds of stories they could tell, which wouldn’t be very beneficial. There’s no telling when The Batman Part III will come together (it was a very long wait for Part II), so it’s better for Gunn to work Batman into the DCU in the interim instead of waiting several more years.

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