With production having recently been forced to shut down to the ongoing Cornoavirus pandemic, and no end in sight for the global crisis, there’s already been speculation that The Batman may eventually end up being delayed. The latest reboot for the Caped Crusader is currently scheduled to land next July, but with many of this year’s blockbuster releases shifting their dates to 2021, the marketplace might end up becoming too crowded even if Robert Pattinson’s debut under the cape and cowl is ready to go by then.
No offense intended to Zack Snyder, but director Matt Reeves arguably faces a much easier task than his predecessor in bringing a new Dark Knight to the big screen. As well as the initial backlash that greeted the casting of Ben Affleck as the iconic superhero, something his successor is already familiar with, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice also marked the first Batman movie since Christopher Nolan’s critically-acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy, which is widely lauded as the single best series that the comic book genre has ever seen.
Batman V Superman and Justice League didn’t fare too well with critics, and failed to deliver the expected numbers at the box office, so Reeves and The Batman are arguably under much less pressure to succeed than Zack Snyder was after rebooting so quickly after The Dark Knight Rises.
In a recent interview, Reeves admitted that he knows how high expectations are surrounding The Batman given the character’s storied cinematic history, and also revealed that he has a soft spot for how Tim Burton’s Batman Returns made the very best of the director’s talents.
“I thought, ‘Well, there’s been some terrific Batman movies’, and I don’t want to be part of a long line of Batman movies where this is just another one. I feel like they’ve been really distinctive. The best ones have been incredible. What Nolan did was incredible. What Tim Burton did was really singular. I love Batman Returns… I love it, I love it so much… I just think it’s such a beautiful movie… This is the beautiful thing about Tim Burton at his best, in that way that he’s got that connection into the fantastical that feels very, very personal.”
Strangely, he didn’t name Joel Schumacher’s movies as incredible, but each to their own. Reeves has already shown with his work on Planet of the Apes that he can put a fresh and exciting spin on a classic franchise, and at this stage, there’s no reason to doubt that The Batman will be any different.
