If you enjoyed watching The Batman, either in theaters or after its release on HBO Max last week, you’re in luck. Warner Bros has confirmed that The Batman 2 is coming, with Robert Pattinson and director Matt Reeves returning for the next chapter in the latest Batman reboot.
As reported by Deadline, the news was confirmed by Toby Emmerich, head of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, during the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. But beyond the fact Pattinson and Reeves will return, and the sequel is happening, we don’t know anything else about the film.
This news does not come as a surprise. The Batman earned $760 million globally after releasing in March, which is a pretty impressive achievement while COVID-19 is still floating about and causing trouble. Deadline also reports that 4.1 million households watched the movie during its first week on HBO Max.
Apparently that means its debut exceeded that of previous Warner Bros day-and-date releases — including The Suicide Squad, Dune and The Matrix Resurrections. Which is pretty good for Battinson.
Matt Reeves was also on stage at CinemaCon, thanking everyone for their support of the film. “We couldn’t have gotten here without the faith and enthusiasm of all your teams around the world, “ the director said, “I’m excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter.”
So what can we expect from The Batman’s sequel? It would be very easy to jump to the conclusion that The Joker will be the main villain of the movie. After all, the end of The Batman teased his teaming up with The Riddler, and the super-unsettling deleted scene suggested he may have a much more prominent role going forward.
But that seems almost too easy, and would draw parallels to 2008’s The Dark Knight. Instead it would be nice to have Batman square off against another villain (or villains), ideally someone we haven’t seen on the big screen before.
The Joker will still be there, waiting in the wings, and would be a perfect candidate for the final villain to round off a trilogy — especially if he’s managed to collect some friends, like some sort of psychotic Nick Fury.
No doubt the sequel will also push Selina Kyle’s story forward, and we may even see more of Colin Farrel’s Penguin. Provided, of course, he’s not too busy with the HBO Max spin-off series to make an appearance.
Whatever happens we’re just going to have to be patient, and wait to see how this one plays out.
