Summary
Warner Bros. has confirmed that Robert Pattinson’sThe Batmanseries will continue to run alongside theBatmanmovies in James Gunn’s rebooted DCU, meaning audiences will have to follow two separate Batman stories, which could get needlessly complicated. Matt Reeves is hard at work onThe Batman Part II– or, at least, he was before the WGA went on strike for fairer wages and A.I.-era protections – while Gunn and his team at DC Studios are also developing a new Batman movie calledThe Brave and the Bold. Rather than integrating the Reeves-verse into the wider DCU, Gunn is allowingThe Batmanseries to continue as a separate property under the “DC Elseworlds” label while he introduces his own take on Batman into the sprawling superhero-infested ensemble of the mainline DCU. Diehard comic book fans will be delighted to follow two concurrent Batman franchises, but general audiences might get confused by the simultaneous continuities.
Reeves’The Batmanseries will continue to explore the gritty, grounded version of Gotham City introduced in the first film as Pattinson’s still-inexperienced Caped Crusader progresses and gets better at being Batman.The Brave and the Bold, on the other hand, will see an older, more experienced Dark Knight taking a young ward –his long-lost son Damian Wayne, a murderous kid raised by assassins – under his wing.The Batmanis a lone-wolf vigilante story whileThe Brave and the Boldwill be an unconventional father-son story. But at the end of the day, they’re both Batman franchises that will run at the same time, and that might cause some long-term problems with the audience’s engagement.
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Two Theatrical Batmen Is Great For DC Fans
The fact that two separate Batman franchises will be running at the same time is great news for DC fans. For the foreseeable future, fans will never be more than a few months away from a new Batman movie – and they can both offer different takes on the character.The Batmanfranchise is arguably the darkest take on the Bat to date – the scenes with its Zodiac-inspired Riddler are ripped straight from a horror movie – so DC fans will get all the gruesome, grisly Batman action they could want from those films.The Brave and the Boldis a chance to go in the other direction andexplore Batman’s lighter side. The movie’s version of Robin is a cold-blooded killer, but it could easily bring back some of the Adam West campness that’s been absent from the Bat’s big-screen adventures since Christopher Nolan’s gritty reboot.
Batman fans will be able to alternate between dark, grounded, violent Batman movies and fun, far-fetched, lighthearted Batman movies. Comic book readers are used to enjoying different writers’ and artists’ interpretations of beloved characters – especially cultural icons like Batman – so following two separate Batman stories won’t be a new experience for them. But casual moviegoers are used to enjoying one incarnation of a character at a time. Eon doesn’t introducea new James Bond actoruntil the previous one has stepped down. At any given time, there’s only ever been one Superman, one Jack Ryan – one Batman. Gunn’s experiment with two co-existing theatrical Batmen is unprecedented, and general audiences might not get on board.
Two Theatrical Batmen Is A Headache For General Audiences
While comic book readers are used to following different incarnations of the same character, it might get confusing for casual audiences who are used to enjoying one Batman at a time. A common defense against these criticisms is that casual viewers have had no trouble following two concurrent Spider-Man franchises, since both Tom Holland’sSpider-Manmovies and the animatedSpider-Versefilms have been doing well in the same timeframe. But that’s a little different, because both of those franchises have used the multiverse to explain each other’s existence, which the Batman franchises won’t have the freedom to do. Plus, the MCU’sSpider-Manmovies and Sony’sSpider-Versemovies each revolve around a completely different character.The MCU’s Spidey is Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man, while theSpider-Verse’s Spidey is Miles Morales, Peter’s successor. It’s easy for audiences to differentiate the Peter ParkerSpider-Manmovies from the Miles MoralesSpider-Manmovies, but bothThe BatmanandThe Brave and the Boldrevolve around Bruce Wayne.
Even if both Batman franchises are simultaneously successful at first, they will eventually start to merge in the audience’s minds. Storylines fromThe Batmanwill get confused with storylines fromThe Brave and the Boldand vice versa. There’s also the possibility of Batman burnout. Superhero fatigue has become a very real thing in the years sinceAvengers: Endgamereached the peak of comic book movie hype, so it stands to reason that audiences will get exhausted by one superhero in particular if they have to follow his stories in two separate continuities. Pattinson’s Batman is too dark to exist in Gunn’s DCU,the DCU would be incomplete without a Batman, and Reeves’ movie is too great not to explore its world further in more sequels, so the decision to split the Batman franchise into two continuities makes sense. But it might turn out to be a huge mistake.
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