Report: Matt Reeves’ The Batman Pushed Back Again

JB Augustine |

May 5, 2019

Matt Reeves’ plagued production, The Batman, pairs about as well with delays as spaghetti does with meatballs. And Warner Bros. must love gorging the developing project because it’s been stuck with another one.

Variety writer Justin Kroll reported on Twitter The Batman was put on a slight delay to give the script an extra polish. Thus, it won’t meet its slated late-2019 start to production. Said Kroll:

“Here’s a small BATMAN update for you: hearing the script is still being polished up and that there’s a possibility shooting begins at the top of 2020 instead of fall 2019.”

Below is the actual tweet:

Here’s a small BATMAN update for you: hearing the script is still being polished up and that there’s a possibility shooting begins at the top of 2020 instead of fall 2019. Which means it’ll probably still be a minute before we find out who the next Caped Crusader will be

— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) May 2, 2019

It was reported a while back Reeves wanted to get the script right and turned in a draft as late as the end of last year. Ben Affleck also struggled with his own script for Batman, reporting he was unable to “crack it” when he announced he would no longer be playing Batman.

This new delay also planted a monkey wrench into any casting announcements. Before, most assumed we’d know who was going to wear the cape by summertime. As Kroll additionally wrote:

“Which means it’ll probably still be a minute before we find out who the next Caped Crusader will be.”

All we know is “the next Caped Crusader” will be younger and Oscar Isaac, Armie Hammer, and Jack O’Connell are names that come up. Also, Joey Lawrence really wants the role even if he might be too old, though he’s been quiet about it in the last few weeks.

Delaying production until next year could be advantageous for Batman and all involved, much like it is for Wonder Woman 1984. Warner’s DC slate is pretty full right now. Shazam! is out and doing tremendously. Joker is due in October and it is a Bat-verse property already building interest sufficiently. The Suicide Squad goes into production at the end of the year and is gathering steam strongly for something we’ve seen previously.

The studio schedule is cluttered and they don’t want to go back to the mistakes of Zack Snyder’s Extended Universe. Things can be spread out and not rushed. It is an advantageous move for building a film universe longterm, say, ten years (like Marvel).

The Batman still has a June 25 of 2021 release date.