James Gunn’s takeover of the DC film slate wasn’t received with the excitement one might expect for a director who’s already been so successful with comic book movies at rival Marvel Studios. But in reality, DC fans were suspicious that new blood would bring restructuring — and that’s how they lost Henry Cavill, the entire DCEU, and now fans are seemingly fearful that they might lose The Batman: Part 2 as well.
The Hollywood Reporter recently announced that The Batman sequel has been pushed further back from its previously scheduled Oct. 2026 release to Oct. 2027, leaving that 2026 slot open for a Tom Cruise collaboration with two-time Best Director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu. With Gunn’s recent announcement on his Threads account that he still hasn’t seen a draft of Matt Reeves’ full script for the sequel to The Batman, it’s not all that surprising that the film has been delayed. Gunn elaborated further, explaining, “Once there is a finished script, there are about two years for pre-production, shooting, and post-production on big films.”
While it’s never ideal to wait for a long-awaited sequel, a five-year gap isn’t all that unreasonable. Gunn, again on Threads, pointed to other films that had a similar five-year wait between installments, such as Aliens and even his own Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. However, for some fans, the issue isn’t just the extended wait. Many are suspicious that Gunn might be preparing to soft-launch an eventual cancellation of Robert Pattinson’s Batman altogether.
For some fans, there is precedence for these fears. When Gunn took over in Oct. 2022, he, alongside the top brass, began reworking the DC vision, effectively terminating the ongoing DCEU. This included canceling movies like the final entry in the Wonder Woman trilogy and, in an even more egregious move, opting not to release a fully completed Batgirl movie. But perhaps the move that irked fans the most was the replacement of Henry Cavill in the all-new DCU. Cavill never truly got to stretch his cape as Superman, and his premature replacement — after a publicized push-and-pull over whether his continued portrayal of the Man of Steel was possible — means some fans may never truly trust what Gunn says, no matter how logical it may sound. Some fans have already taken to X to voice their suspicions.
Earlier, Gunn assured fans that he would not interfere with Matt Reeves’ vision for Batman, categorizing it as part of a DC Elseworlds initiative alongside Todd Phillips’ Joker and the hilarious animated Harley Quinn series. With the exception of Joker: Folie A Deux, it makes sense to take Gunn at his word, as the success of these titles has been crucial to the studio. After all, at a time when Warner Bros. is actively seeking success, it would make little sense to cancel some of their most beloved properties — especially Reeves’ The Batman.
The film clearly resonated with fans, thanks to its sleek cinematography, perfect casting, and a more detective-focused take on the Caped Crusader — a novel approach within the franchise. Fans showed up in droves, and the sequel is expected to perform even better, potentially breaking the $1B mark if it surpasses the original at the box office. James Gunn clearly has a lot of reasons to curry favor with DC fans. And even though all signs might point to trouble, it’s hard to believe they would consider canceling one of their most beloved properties just before the expected release of the DC universe-defining Superman movie on July 11, 2025.