'The Batman Part 2' Has Now Been Delayed Until 2027

The sound that all of you have been hearing for the last couple of hours has been that of Andrew Sanford and Mike Redmond laughing nonstop, with all of the satisfaction that comes from being oh-so-right while everyone else is in denial and insists on being in the wrong. What exactly is it that they’re right about, you ask if you clicked on this without even reading the damn headline?

Why, it’s the fact that The Batman Part II has been delayed yet again, and will no longer open in theaters on October 2, 2026, but is now scheduled to open in theaters on October 1, 2027.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

The DC Studios film is expected to go into production in the third quarter of 2025, and is now set for Oct. 1, 2027. The Batman sequel has sported multiple release dates since it was announced in 2022, with the methodical [director/co-writer Matt] Reeves working to perfect the script.

“Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write,” DC Studios co-chief James Gunn wrote on Threads Friday. “Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for pre-production, shooting and post-production on big films.”

Meanwhile, The Batman star Robert Pattinson and filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming Mickey 17 is swapping release dates with director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners. Mickey 17 now opens March 7, 2025, while Sinners bows on April 18, 2025.

Now that The Batman Part II (which is currently untitled, as it’s now going to have a different name once the script is complete) has been delayed yet again, its October 2, 2026 release date has already been snatched up by Tom Cruise and director Alejandro González Iárritu (who also directed The Revenant, Babel, and Birdman) for their untitled film, which stars Cruise as “…the most powerful man in the world, who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.” (Honestly, this sounds like the exact same plot as Avengers: Age of Ultron.)

As Mike has said over and over and over again, it seemed very unlikely that The Batman Part II would ever see the light of day in October of 2026, or even see the light of day at all. After the critical and ratings success of The Penguin (much of that was due to showrunner Lauren LeFranc steering the ship), it would’ve made sense for Gunn to ride that wave of excitement and anticipation to let fans know that pre-production for The Batman Part II would start soon next year, and that they had a lot of amazing things to look forward to. Instead, he did none of those things, and admitted that Reeves hadn’t finished the script yet, and that we’d all have a lot more waiting to do.

When I wrote about the last time that The Batman Part II was delayed, and given a new release date, I had mentioned this:

Some fans theorized that Reeves and his co-writers are writing the screenplays for Parts 2 and 3 of The Batman at the same time. Others suspected that Gunn might attempt to either shut down the project, so that the only Batman appearing on the big screen would be the DCU version being introduced in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, or was attempting to convince Reeves to change his tune about his Batman being an Elseworlds version of the Caped Crusader, and allow him to become part of the DCU.

Keep in mind that Reeves’ version of Batman (played by Robert Pattinson) was only in his second year of crimefighting in Gotham City, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold will feature an experienced Batman in his prime. The film is expected to introduce the Damian Wayne version of Robin, along with several members of the Bat-Family.

Speaking of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, that film has also been delayed as well, according to its director, Andy Muschietti:

“I’m now writing a science fiction movie that I would like to do… Batman is a project that’s been postponed a bit. So there could be another film before it, possibly that one.”

Gunn hasn’t been shy about letting the public know how hard he’s been working, and how much pressure he’s feeling, as the co-CEO of DC Studios. The teaser trailer for his film Superman has been viewed over 250 million times on YouTube since it premiered last week, but that is no guarantee of the film being an undeniable box office success. Which is exactly what Gunn (and his bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery) want to see happen when the film opens next July, especially if they’re expected to give the green light to more of the projects on Gunn and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran’s slate of upcoming DCU content.

Is Gunn taking even more of a wait-and-see approach to Batman: The Brave and the Bold until he sees how well Superman does? Or is this yet another sign of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav being a greedy and incompetent f-ckwit, and planning to make even more piss-poor decisions about the DCU and Warner Bros. now that Trump is on his way back to the White House? (You know, the kind of piss-poor decision-making that put both Warner Bros. and the DCU behind the eight-ball in the first place.) Is Gunn feeling more pressure from Zaslav to convince Reeves that Pattinson’s version of Batman should be the DCU version of Batman, so that there won’t need to be two different versions for Zaslav to spend money on? Will Andy Muschietti still be willing and able to direct Batman: The Brave and the Bold when the script is complete, or will Gunn and Safran hire someone else to replace him? (Judging from most of the reactions to The Flash, some fans wouldn’t be disappointed if Muschietti was no longer in the director’s chair for another DC film.) Are we still getting that Clayface movie by Mike Flanagan, which was yet another decision that had people scratching their heads about what we should expect from the DCU?

For now, all we can do is wait for some answers as we continue to wait even longer for The Batman Part II (until Reeves finishes his script, and tells us all what the new title will be, The Batman Part II is what I’m calling it) to finally appear on movie screens worldwide, and just hope that it doesn’t end up becoming the DCU version of Blade.

P.S. This message is from both Andrew and Mike, but mostly Mike: