You’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint another DC project that’s attracted the same amount of misinformation and baseless rumors as The Batman.
Tentatively announced in the midst of Justice League‘s own storied production, the Matt Reeves-directed spinoff has been bombarded with speculative reports ever since it first flickered into life, and those rumors only intensified once Ben Affleck began to weigh up his future in the DC Extended Universe – or lack thereof.
Even now, the current Caped Crusader refuses to be drawn about his involvement in The Batman, which has only encouraged the likes of Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Jake Gyllenhaal to put themselves forward for the coveted role. Still no update on that front just yet, but Heroic Hollywood is reporting today that the film may start production in 2019 now, rather than later this year, which is what we’d been led to believe.
If that’s indeed the case, then it could be with us by mid to late 2020. After all, the studio already has several dates staked out that year for DC films and it wouldn’t surprise us at all if one of them’s for The Batman. Keep in mind though that WB hasn’t confirmed any of this, and it’s simply a rumor for now. That being said, it would make perfect sense.
With Shazam! currently in production and Wonder Woman 2, Suicide Squad 2 and Flashpoint all gearing up to get going later this year, it’s unlikely the studio would push Matt Reeves’ film in front of cameras, too. Instead, it makes sense for them to wait until 2019 to get started, once those other projects are out of the way.
So, for now at least, The Batman remains in the early stages of development over at Warner Bros., where Reeves is still crafting his screenplay into shape. Word is he’s been given Nolan-like control of the standalone pic, too, all but confirming that WB has no intention of rushing the director and his creative team – lest the end product suffer as a result of studio meddling.