There’s a great deal of speculation about the future of Batman in the DC Extended Universe at the moment, as a result of shifts in development on the characters upcoming solo movie.
After setting the film up as being written, directed and performed by Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, the script and helming duties have now been handed to Matt Reeves, while Affleck will concentrate on his portrayal of the Dark Knight. There are also rumours of Affleck’s Batman being ‘phased out’ after the solo movie – which may, perhaps, be nothing more than an assumption borne of plans within DC to look beyond Batman at his wider universe – as detailed in comments from Geoff Johns, during an interview with IGN Live.
“We haven’t gone out there and said what our slate is and that’s because we’ll do it when we’re ready and we have the films that we’re excited about. But for Batman, what I will say is that Batman is more than just Batman and, you know, it’s been way too long since we’ve seen an expansion of that universe, and Batgirl – we are doing Batgirl with Joss Whedon, it’s going to be super exciting.
He’s going to start that next year, and that’s just the start. We want to explore the Batman universe in a very big new way and Matt Reeves is coming on to do Batman now, and we don’t want to do the same thing that has been done before. We want to build it out just like we built it out in the comics.”
This is a very big deal, because the cinematic depiction of Batman to date has been deeply frustrating in the way in which it has been limited to Bruce Wayne’s vigilante exploits. Essentially, we have seen the same thing repeatedly – albeit delivered with various tones and aesthetics applied – and while those are all great films in their own ways, there’s much more to be explored. The 77 years of source material has provided an expansive universe to draw upon – filled with fascinating characters and interesting storylines that are yet to be seen in movies.
The crucial point here, though, is that these comments come from Geoff Johns, who’s not only been writing comics – including Batman – for almost 20 years, but is both President and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics, while also serving as Co-Chairman of DC Films, and Co-Runner of the DC Extended Universe. If anyone is suited to overseeing the delivery of a Bat-Verse spun-off from the core Justice League franchise, it’s Geoff Johns.
But, this signals a fundamental change in the way in which we view Batman in popular culture. He has – after years of film adaptations – been depicted as something of a standalone, isolated figure, and DC evidently now wants to switch that up in a very big way, bringing it fully in line with his situation in the comic book source material. By introducing Batman to the DCEU in relation to other superheroes in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Warner Bros. has already reinvented the way this iconic character is regarded.
Now, Johns has confirmed that this will continue in the adaptation of his wider cast of characters, beyond those already seen. This is a very exciting, and long overdue endeavour, and – provided DC and Warner Bros. enlist the talents of the right filmmakers – it means that fans of comic book movies have a brilliant future ahead of them.
