As The Batman takes over the box office, director Matt Reeves has been discussing the possibility of a sequel. We've already presented our list of comic book storylines that we want to see adapted in The Batman 2. And Reeves has been dropping hints about the classic DC characters he'd like to bring into the fold.
In an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Reeves expressed his desire to introduce Robin. Batman's loyal sidekick, aka Dick Grayson, last appeared in live-action form in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, as played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, although his true identity was only revealed in the penultimate scene. Nevertheless, Reeves says that any character introduction has to be germane to Batman's own emotional development.
"Here's the thing, I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do," he explains. "I'm not sure what the next story is. For me, whatever that story's going to be, it's going to be to take these characters — and specifically Batman's character — and put them in some kind of emotional jeopardy. So when you talk about what you're talking about, there may be a really interesting story. There'd have to be emotional stakes to get drawn into that character's story.
"I don't want that character to become a cypher. I don't want to be like, 'Okay, so we saw it wasn't an origin tale, but you know what, that was kind of [Batman's] origins and now he's just perfect.' No, you need to test the character again and again and again. And for me, yeah, there might be something in that. I don't know. There's a deep-dive that already happened at the beginning and now I'm gonna have to deep-dive again if we have the chance to make another one and so we shall see."
Reeves has already started speaking to Warner Bros about The Batman 2, telling The Independent "we have started talking about another movie." Naturally, exact details are currently thin on the ground. We already know that...
THE BATMAN SPOILERS AHEAD
... the final scene of The Batman introduces Barry Keoghan's grinning Joker. However, Reeves has implied that The Joker won't be the main villain of The Batman 2. It leaves us wondering where Robert Pattinson's scowling, granite-jawed Bruce Wayne will go from here, especially since Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman has left Gotham City, The Penguin (Colin Farrell) is still alive, and The Riddler (Paul Dano) is too, albeit stuck within the confines of Arkham Asylum.
In fact, Reeves says that The Joker was meant to play a bigger role in The Batman. Originally, Bruce Wayne visits an "unnamed prisoner" in Arkham to help get to the bottom of The Riddler's crimes, but it was ultimately cut for pacing reasons. Reeves describes the decision as a "heartbreaking" but necessary one.
“I never was trying to say like, ‘Hey, guess what, here’s the Joker. Next movie!'” says Reeves. “The idea was more to say, ‘Hey, look, if you think that trouble is going to go away in Gotham, you can forget it. It’s already here. And it’s already delicious.'”
On that basis, consider us disappointed if The Joker doesn't, at the very least, play a small role in The Batman 2. Reeves says "there might be places" to slot the character into his ongoing Batman universe, adding: "We made a really concerted effort to make this different from the other Batman movies, because we needed to. It’s something to think about with the Joker. It’s been done well, a number of times."
While we await further news, click here to book your tickets for The Batman and re-experience Reeves' lusciously Gothic vision on the biggest screen you can find.
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