The Batman wrapped with a riddle, a post-credits scene that wasn’t really a scene scene but rather a cypher: the words “good bye” in the Riddler’s green text (something like the Matrix’s coding console meets a QAnon message). Since then, a whole website—www.rataalada.com—has teased more puzzles and even a continuation of the Riddler’s plans. An image posted to the site earlier this month contained a cypher, which when decoded read, “You think I’m finished but perhaps you don’t know the full truth. Every ending is a new beginning. Something is coming.”
That sure sounds like a sequel to us.
The Batman, Matt Reeves’ neo-noir adaptation of the DC comic character, forwent the traditional first film origin story—Bruce’s parents die, Bruce overcomes his fear and adopts the image of a bat, Bruce faces his first real villain, etc. Instead, Reeves imagined a more experienced Batman (in his second year of caped crusading), which allows the story to shake off cumbersome opening acts: Batman’s bildungsroman is replaced by a more mature character stage.
Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Reeves explained the reasoning.
“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.’”
Reeves wants a mature, but imperfect Batman. He wants to take Batman to a more complex character plane. And opening a film franchise with Wayne as a kid requires too much backpedaling. It seems Reeves has a clear future arc for his Batman, which means a plan for future films.
“You need to test the character again and again and again,” he said. “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.”
Warner Bros.
When Is The Batman 2 Coming Out?
While Warner Bros hasn’t yet confirmed The Batman 2—like, c’mon, what are they waiting for, have they seen the projected $700 million payout?—we can expect future films. We just may have to wait a beat.
“Here’s the thing, I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do,” Reeves said on the podcast. “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… There’d have to be emotional stakes to get drawn into that character’s story.”
In the meantime, Reeves is already expanding his Batman universe into television, with plans for an HBO Max series based on Colin Farrell’s Penguin, as well as a potential series on either the Gotham Police Department or Arkham Asylum.
What Will The Batman 2 Be About?
It’s anyone’s guess, although some critics are motioning toward a potential Robin inclusion. (Reeves’ response to this: “Maybe. We’ll just say maybe. I don’t know, I don’t know.”)
Still in play are several characters, including Selena (Zoë Kravitz), Penguin (Colin Farrell), Riddler (Paul Dano), and even a Joker (Barry Keoghan).
So let’s just say there’s potential.
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