Following a report earlier this week that The Batman was resuming production after a COVID-19-triggered shutdown, Warner Bros. have now officially confirmed that the Matt Reeves movie is back underway. Although it’s not yet known whether Robert Pattinson is also on set after testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month, it does seem that things are rolling again on the much-anticipated picture.
Warner Bros. made the following brief statement today about the decision to go ahead with shooting:
“Following a hiatus for COVID-19 quarantine precautions, filming has now resumed on The Batman in the UK.”
Despite the long-running break in action caused by the global pandemic, enough footage was shot for The Batman to produce the awesome teaser trailer we received at DC FanDome. Reeves is believed to have completed about a quarter of the film so far, with about another three months left to get in the can. As far as we know, The Batman is still locked into its October 1st, 2021 release date, so the director and his crew are going to have a busy time getting everything ready for next year.
Anticipation is high for how The Batman will breathe new life into the Dark Knight franchise, and how it’ll tie into the existing DCEU version of the character played by Ben Affleck. The Batman will, of course, focus on Pattinson’s early days as a crime fighter in Gotham City, with the Riddler understood to be the main villain. However, we may still see crossovers in the future with the wider DCEU, including a potential appearance by Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker.
For now, we’re just happy that The Batman has cleared its latest on-set delay, and can now hopefully move forward into the end of the year without any further problems. Of course, given where the world is at the moment, it’s not unlikely that there’ll be additional issues related to the virus, although we’d hope that these won’t push things back to the point that the October premiere has to be adjusted, as has been the case with many big titles anticipating theatrical runs in 2021.
