With “The Batman“‘s arrival in theaters, Robert Pattinson‘s take on the Caped Crusader joins the many other adaptations of Batman that have hit the big screen over the years. For the most part, every recent iteration of Batman has received at least one sequel continuing the story of Bruce Wayne and his fight against the baddies of Gotham. So, will “The Batman” get a sequel, too?
During a presentation on April 26 at CinemaCon, an annual trade show for theater owners, Warner Bros. confirmed that “The Batman” will be getting a sequel written by director Matt Reeves, according to Variety.
Leading up to the announcement, the cast and crew of the production made it clear that they were definitely on board for a follow-up film. “You don’t make [movie] number one as if there’s going to be number two,” Reeves told The Independent on the premiere red carpet. “You have to make number one as if you are swinging for the fences, and it has to be a movie that stands and lives on its own. But I really believe in what we’ve done, and I’d be excited to tell more stories. . . . We have started talking about another movie.”
Reeves noted in the same interview that other spinoffs of “The Batman” are in the works. “We are already telling other stories in the streaming space, we’re doing stuff on HBO Max, we’re doing a Penguin show with Colin [Farrell], which is gonna be super cool. And we’re working on some other stuff, too,” Reeves said. It’s clear that Warner Bros. is interested in building out this version of the Batman/DC universe, which is separate from the DC Extended Universe of interconnected movies (including “Aquaman” and “Justice League”) that has already been going on for several years.
So, what can we expect from the upcoming sequel? The cast seem to have a few ideas. In a video interview with Vanity Fair, the cast joked about who might be the villains in a potential sequel. “I was definitely kind of thinking Court of Owls is probably gonna be in the sequel,” Pattinson said. Paul Dano, who plays the Riddler in “The Batman,” agreed: “Court of Owls would be dope!”
The Court of Owls, mostly seen in more modern Batman comics, are a secret society of wealthy Gothamites and the assassins they hire — and it’s a Batman foe that haven’t been adapted yet for any major film. More likely, however, is a payoff of that tease at the end of the movie hinting at the arrival of another iconic Batman villain. We’ll have to wait and see what happens when the sequel to “The Batman” is released.