And we’re off. Production on The Batman is officially underway. Director Matt Reeves has confirmed as such with an image of a slate board posted to his Twitter account under the caption “#DayOne #TheBatman.” I think we can take that as a reliable source, right?
Here’s the tweet in actuality:
#DayOne #TheBatman cc: @GreigfraserD pic.twitter.com/kOgcsa6zX3
— Matt Reeves (@mattreevesLA) January 27, 2020
This image represents a huge moment for the project, and for fans. The film underwent multiple delays, a change in the director’s chair, a change in the Batman’s chair, and a script rewrite. All this upheaval stemmed from Ben Affleck’s eventual decision to pull out of the DC Extended Universe entirely. The star was originally signed on to handle all three of those roles, with Warner Bros. giving their backing to his standalone Bat-project way back in October 2014. Circumstances have dictated that his vision never made it to production, but 5 years or so later we do have their post-cinematic universe Batman film tangibly in the making. It is, at long last, really happening.
What direction Matt Reeves takes, how successful the casting of Robert Pattinson proves to be and how well they cope under the shadow of Nolan’s trilogy are all questions that can’t be answered yet. I hope we find out on June 25th, 2021 that those answers are positive, though.
In any case, the race to the finish line is now on and there’s less than 18 months to go until we see what WB and Reeves have cooked up for us. Hans Zimmer’s Dark Knight score suddenly comes to mind. After all, if there’s one thing he captured perfectly in those films, it’s suspense.
The Batman is coming back to the big screen, folks, and this time, he’s thankfully not lugging Ezra Miller with him.
