As one of the most beloved fictional characters in the annals of popular culture, there’s always going to be a huge audience ready for more blockbuster Batman adventures, even if the nocturnal vigilante’s standard set of personality traits position him as a much darker counterpoint to the primary-colored likes of many of his contemporaries such as Superman and Spider-Man.
When it comes to live-action interpretations, not a lot of them have leaned away from the Caped Crusader’s harder edges. Adam West’s kitschy 1960s TV show was a product of its time, while Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin drastically lightened the tone and wound up killing the entire franchise in the space of two years.
We haven’t seen a ton from Matt Reeves’ The Batman since the surprise first trailer dropped last year, but insider Grace Randolph is now claiming that Warner Bros. are concerned about the reboot’s mainstream potential, as you can see below.
I haven't heard anything about WB execs having problem re #TheBatman
I DID hear from several people film is EXTREMELY dark, & there's SOME concern re mainstream appeal
but #Joker made over a billion $.
Let's hope WB sticks to their guns this time.
It's apparently 🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/u3Lk34vmvz— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) June 4, 2021
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter how dark The Batman gets, as any blockbuster bearing the Dark Knight’s name is guaranteed to draw in an audience because he’s Batman. Tim Burton’s 1989 original was hardly sunshine and rainbows by the standards of the era, while Christopher Nolan’s entire trilogy was grounded, gritty and thematically heavier than we’d ever seen on the big screen before.
Besides, like Randolph mentioned, the decidedly non-mainstream Joker surpassed the irreverent and humorous Deadpool duology to become the highest-grossing R-rated title in history with a box office haul north of $1 billion, and as far as we know, The Batman will be PG-13. Of course, the quality of the finished product will ultimately be the deciding factor, so let’s hope Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson have knocked it out of the park.
