While the new DC Universe shared continuity will introduce its own Batman with The Brave and the Bold, Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne isn’t going anywhere either. The public was introduced to this take on DC Comics’ Caped Crusader when The Batman was released in March 2022, and the sequel was officially announced a month later. However, this upcoming DC movie has now been hit with a big deal, though it sounds like this is just what the Matt Reeves-helmed sequel needs.
Until today, the plan was for The Batman 2, officially known as The Batman – Part II, to be released on October 3, 2025, but the sequel will now be released on October 2, 2026. In other words, we have to wait an extra year for its arrival, and a little over four and a half years will have passed between the first and second movies. According to Deadline, the release date shift is due to the “aftermath” of last year’s Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a shame we now have to wait even longer for The Batman 2’s arrival, but in the long run, this is surely for the best. The writers and actors strikes sidelined Hollywood for a significant chunk of 2023, and that was always in turn going to affect the development of upcoming projects. In the case of The Batman 2, had the writers strike specifically not happened, then maybe Matt Reeves and co-writer Mattson Tomlin would be done with the script by now, and the former would be deep into preproduction or perhaps even be gearing up to shoot soon.
But the strikes did happen, and as of last month, James Gordon actor Jeffrey Wright said he still hadn’t read The Batman 2’s script. Even on the off chance that Reeves and Tomlinson have finished their writing duties on this project, the delay to late 2026 gives them extra time to polish the script and ensure it’s the best it can be. Plus, history has shown that rushed productions rarely turn out well, so had Warner Bros. tried to force The Batman 2 into shooting later this year, the overall product might not have turned out nearly as well as its predecessor did (CinemaBlend’s The Batman review awarded the movie 4.5 out of 5 stars).
As Deadline also noted in its writeup, The Batman 2 shifting from 2025 to 2026 gives it some distance from Superman, the first DC Universe movie, which is slated for July 2025. Had the sequel stuck with its original release date, the two movies would have come out within three months of each other. So while multiple superhero movies coming out in the same year isn’t anything special (after all, The Batman came out the same year as Black Adam), I wouldn’t fault the studio for wanting to give two of DC Comics’ most popular superheroes some breathing room in the cinematic space.
The good news is that even though The Batman 2 is now on the 2026 theatrical calendar, we don’t have to wait that long to revisit this version of Gotham City. Later this year, the spinoff limited series The Penguin will premiere to Max subscribers, and we’ll get to see the kind of trouble Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot gets into in The Batman’s immediate aftermath. There’s also still a GCPD series in development, but it’s also important to note that the previously-announced Arkham Asylum series Reeves is producing on will take place in the DC Universe rather than The Batman’s continuity as initially assumed.
Keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more news on The Batman 2 and its associated projects. In addition to being available on Max, The Batman can also currently be streamed with a Netflix subscription.
