Matt Reeves Promises That The Batman 2 Will Keep Its Focus On The Hero (& Why That's The Right Call)
Matt Reeves' "The Batman" delighted both critics and fans alike, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and the film's global haul of nearly $771 million (via Box Office Mojo) all but assured production of a sequel. However, James Gunn and Peter Safran's anointment as the hopeful saviors of DC Studios' film franchises cast some uncertainty on "The Batman 2" moving forward. Suddenly, Henry Cavill's Superman fell apart, and the axing of Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman 3" collaboration threatened all the DC mainstays who carried over from the DCEU's SnyderVerse. And even though "The Batman" existed outside of Zack Snyder's DC projects, the future of Reeves' and Robert Pattinson's project remained up in the air.
However, Reeves survived the purge resulting from the advent of the new Gunn/Safran regime at DC, which will hopefully steady the topsy-turvy movie division. And Reeves plans to meet soon with Gunn and Safran about his plans for Batman moving forward. "They [Gunn and Safran] have been great," Reeves said in an interview with Collider.
"We're actually supposed to meet in the next few weeks because they want to talk to me about the broad plan," Reeves continued. "And then they want to hear the BatVerse plan. We're just getting together to talk about all of that." An untitled "The Batman" sequel is in the works, and fans should expect Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight detective to be the straw stirring the drink in "The Batman 2" and not his Rogues' gallery of villains.
Pattinson's Batman will be the epicenter of Reeves' sequel
Matt Reeves promises Bruce Wayne/Batman won't get lost in the shadows of the villains he'll face in "The Batman" sequel. "My goal has always been to do these point-of-view stories that allow the character to always be the emotional center of the story." Reeves said in an interview with Collider. Fashioning the Dark Knight as the main character in his own franchise seems like a no-brainer, but remember how Jack Nicholson received top billing in "Batman" over Michael Keaton? How about the time Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning Joker stole the show in "The Dark Knight?"
"A lot of times what happens is after you do the first one, then suddenly other Rogues' gallery characters come in, and they kind of take over," Reeves continued. "And then Batman takes a backseat sort of character-wise, or emotionally." In fact, it can be argued that Batman has been the main character only three times since the 1960s in various media iterations. First, If you ask someone what they remember about the campy "Batman" television series, Adam West's name invariably comes up.
Second, after the train wreck known as "Batman & Robin," Christopher Nolan shined the bat signal solely on Christian Bale's Dark Knight origins in "Batman Begins." Lastly, there is Reeves' "The Batman," which managed to faithfully concentrate on Robert Pattinson's portrayal despite the brilliant trio of Riddler (Paul Dano), Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) complicating Bruce Wayne's life.
Focusing on the Batman is the right move
Focusing on Batman/Bruce Wayne moving forward is the key to keeping Matt Reeves' future sequels fresh and innovative. Reeves brilliantly showed off another side of the Dark Knight in "The Batman" when he brought Wayne's underutilized detective skills to the forefront — thereby expanding on the character. And Reeves should continue the trend of exploring other facets of Batman's persona. For instance, considering all of Bruce's brooding in the films and comics, fans would love to see him go too far and break his "no killing" rule.
"I'm sorry, but Bruce should've killed the Joker long before Joker even killed Jason [Todd] or paralyzed Barbara [Gordon]," u/hydrosphere1313 posted on Reddit. Another benefit of focusing on Batman rather than his villains is that it affords Reeves the opportunity to introduce and expand the Bat Family. Characters like the aforementioned Jason Todd (the second Robin, Red Hood) and Barbara Gordon (Batgirl, Oracle) are not only integral to the "Batman" comic books, but they also humanize the Dark Knight.
And fans have their own ideas about which villains Robert Pattinson's Bat should face in "The Batman 2." "Scarface/The Ventriloquist, I feel [Arnold] Wesker would make a great follow up after the Riddler we got," u/crunchyllama posted. "Other interesting ones could be Mr. [Professor] Pyg, Mad Hatter, or even Firefly." Regardless, putting the emphasis on Batman will continue to perpetuate the character and further Reeves' exploration of his Dark Knight detective.