The Future of Batman at DC Studios Includes Giving a Surprising Villain His Own Film
When DC Studios co-chiefs Peter Safran and James Gunn delivered an update on their upcoming slate of films and TV shows at a screening room on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, they were revisiting the location of their first public reveal about their initial slate.
Two years ago, in January 2023, Gunn and Safran sat in the very same spot and updated the press on specifics for their new-look DC Studios. Yesterday, they came with a string of releases already under their belt, with the studio’s big kickoff movie, Gunn’s Superman, deep in the post-production process as it nears its July 11, 2025 release date.
With the David Corenswet-led Superman set to fly in a few months, production for director Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, starring Milly Alcock, at the halfway point, and the upcoming series Green Lanterns, led by stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, entering production as well, there was plenty of action underway.
DC’s animated series Creature Commandos premiered on Max on December 5, 2024, while the live-action Peacemaker will debut its second season in August 2025.
But what about that other iconic DC Superhero, the one whose cape is black and who plies his trade in Gotham? Batman has been the most reliable and arguably beloved DC Studios superhero on the big screen for decades, beginning with Tim Burton’s 1989 classic Batman and through Christopher Nolan’s game-changing Dark Knight trilogy. The last time we saw Batman on the big screen, Robert Pattinson had taken up the cape and cowl in Matt Reeves’s critically acclaimed 2022 film The Batman. Gunn and Safran had answers about the future of the hero Gotham needs.
The official rollout of the new Batman will happen in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which will be directed by The Flash helmer Andy Muschietti. Casting hasn’t begun on that film, so we’ll need to wait to see who becomes the official Bruce Wayne in Gunn and Safran’s unified DC Universe. With the success and acclaim of Reeves’ The Batman and the spinoff Max series The Penguin, which starred Colin Farrell’s scheming crime boss, this version of Gotham will exist independent of the unified DC Studios banner and exist, instead, under their Elseworlds banner. But The Batman Part II and a second season of The Penguin aren’t up first.
The first film Gunn and Safran confirmed was Clayface, with British director James Watkins (Speak No Evil) in talks to direct a film that is being billed as a “body horror” and would work as a pure horror movie for someone uninterested in DC’s canon of characters. The villain Clayface first appeared in Detective Comics in 1940 as a shape-shifting, clay-like villain who had once been an actor. After being exposed to radioactive protoplasm during the 1950s comics, he gained his shapeshifting powers.
The plan is to start shooting Clayface this summer. Who will play Clayface is another matter—he’s voiced by Alan Tudyk twice over in two animated series: Harley Quinn and Gunn’s Creature Commandos. But Gunn said Tudyk wouldn’t be playing the character in the live film.
As for The Batman Part II, Safran confirmed that Reeves hasn’t yet turned in a full script, but what they’ve read thus far is “incredibly encouraging.” The movie is slated for a 2027 release (initially, it was set to premiere in 2026). And will we see Colin Farrell reprise Oz Cobb in a second season of The Penguin? “We don’t know,” Safran said. “There are a lot of moving pieces — probably most important Colin himself.” It’s well-known just how grueling it is to become The Penguin, but perhaps the accolades and acclaim the series and Farrell’s performance have earned will get all the players back on the board.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold has a story “that is coming together nicely,” Safran said, and Gunn expressed his own increased focus on the film given how important Batman is to the DC universe. While Gunn confirmed that it was “very unlikely” that Pattinson would star as Batman in The Brave and the Bold, he left open the possibility that he might appear in a different film altogether.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Gunn said. “He could show up in something else.”
Featured image: Caption: ROBERT PATTINSON as Batman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action adventure “THE BATMAN,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jonathan Olley/™ & © DC Comics
