Warner Bros.’ next solo movie for the Dark Knight has undergone a complete overhaul over the years since it was first announced. For ages, Ben Affleck was going to write, direct and star as Batman, but the actor/filmmaker ultimately dropped out of the project. The screenplay he’d written with Geoff Johns was then thrown out and his replacement Matt Reeves began anew. Through all this, though, the one thing we knew about the movie was that it would be called The Batman.
Recently, however, we learned that might not be the case, as it was reported that The Batman wasn’t the film’s official title. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the former Planet of the Apes director was asked what the title of his DC flick was and he confirmed that it’s currently being referred to as The Batman, but he doesn’t know if this will end up being what it’s released as.
“(Laughs.) Right now it’s called The Batman. What it will be called ultimately, I don’t know.”
The Batman was popular among fans as it effectively got across that the movie will go back to basics with the Caped Crusader. We’ve probably had enough of Batman “Insert Verb Here” titles while Christopher Nolan sort of cornered the market on using “Dark Knight” in the name. If Reeves did want to go for something else, he’d presumably take the more modern route of employing a subtitle.
In the same interview, he confirmed what his vision for the film we’re still going to call The Batman is. In contrast to previous movies, he’s going to focus on Batman as the World’s Greatest Detective and tell a story about the hero using his amazing crime-solving smarts. We also know there’ll be a full rogues gallery worth of villains, as opposed to Affleck’s approach which would have been to pit Bruce Wayne against Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke.
The Batman/ Batman Returns Again/The Dark Knight Reboots/whatever it’s called, is currently expected to arrive in theaters in June of 2021, and as soon as we learn of the title, we’ll be sure to let you know.
