DCU Chief James Gunn Won’t Have 2 Batman Movies Come Out in the Same Year, Tells Fans Not to Expect a Brave and the Bold Update Until After The Batman 2
DC Universe chief James Gunn has suggested fans won’t get an update on the Brave and the Bold Batman movie until after The Batman 2 comes out next year.
The Batman 2, starring Robert Pattinson in the title role, is set to launch five-and-a-half years after The Batman, on October 1, 2027. Writer-director Matt Reeves has said he set out to make a trilogy of Batman films as part of his Batman Epic Crime Saga, and as of 2024 that plan was still on.
The Batman films exist in a universe separate to the ongoing DCU, and given Gunn has ruled out Pattinson’s Batman crossing over, we’re set for a new actor to play the Caped Crusader for the Brave and the Bold.
It’s a film with a great deal of expectation behind it, but it seems a long way away. Asked on social media when fans can expect to see a Brave and the Bold update, Gunn indicated that nothing will be released until after The Batman 2 is done and dusted.
“I’m dependent on when there’s an actionable script ready so there is no way of me guessing this,” he said. “Also, frankly, we’re well into Batman 2, and I wouldn’t want to cloud the Batsphere until after that.”
Given The Batman 2 comes out October 2027, it looks like we won’t get an update on The Brave and the Bold until early 2028 at the earliest.
Gunn then committed to never releasing two Batman movies in the same year. “I think both Batman and WW [Wonder Woman] are incredibly important,” he said in response to another fan. “But I’m also not going to have two Batman movies come out in the same year.”
Gunn finds himself having to navigate two takes on Batman at the same time. If Reeves gets to make his third Batman film, we could see The Brave and The Bold sandwiched between a pair of Robert Pattinson Batman movies, potentially confusing the audience.
While promoting the rebooted DCU kickstarter Superman last year, Gunn admitted: “Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now.” As of February 2025, The Brave and the Bold was said to be in “very active development,” and the story was “coming together very nicely.” But is The Flash director Andy Muschietti still directing? At the time, Gunn and Safran were said to be developing the script, and planned to show it to Muschietti “when we have it in a place where we think it’s ready to go… and see if it’s a fit for him.”
As for The Batman 2, in an update last year, Reeves acknowledged how long it was taking to get the sequel in a position to start filming. “It’s been a journey that is taking longer than I would’ve wanted for a lot of reasons, a lot of personal reasons,” Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter. “But [the] most important reason is getting it to a place where I just felt like it was the best script we could possibly write.”
Reeves also spoke about Pattinson’s response to the script — which, believe it or not, was mailed to him in a privacy pouch complete with coded entry (that Pattinson almost couldn’t open, mind you) to keep all of the exciting details completely under wraps.
“He’s Batman, and if he doesn’t like it, not good,” the Cloverfield director said of Pattinson’s feelings on the script. “I was super excited. I thought that he really would [like it] because the things that it does for his character, for Batman and for Bruce, have never been done before in this way. I had a feeling that he would respond in this way, but the fact that he did was incredibly encouraging.”
He added: “Obviously because of what the first movie was and what this movie is, which is so much a detective story, the idea of trying to protect the secrets of the movie is super important because it’s a mystery. It would be an extra level of heartbreak if that part of it started getting out.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
