While I like James Gunn’s superhero movies across both DC and Marvel, I am continually confused about how his over-arching DCU plan is going to pan out.
This past week, Gunn revealed that he had offered Matt Reeves the opportunity to have Reeves’ “Batverse” be part of the DCU. As in, Robert Pattinson’s Bruce from The Batman would be the DCU’s Batman. Reeves said no, and Gunn “respected” that decision. But Reeves was also working on two other Batverse shows, a Penguin series and a series set in Arkham.
Now, as a result of James Gunn answering fan questions endlessly on Threads, which is nice but creates a news story almost every day, he says that Reeves is actually developing the Arkham show for the DCU, not The Batverse, which will just have The Batman, The Batman 2 and the Max Penguin show for now.
This gets even more confusing when you remember the end of The Batman, which has Paul Dano’s Riddler imprisoned in Arkham, and we also get to meet Barry Keoghan’s Joker. Keoghan recently “no commented” on him returning to play the Joker in full, but hinted strongly that he might.
But…this Arkham would not be that Arkham. No Dano Riddler or Keoghan Joker imprisoned there as stars of the show. This would be a new slate of Batman villains not connected to any we’ve seen in The Batman, given that it would be developed as a DCU project instead. That means a new Riddler, Joker, Penguin and Catwoman, all of which we were introduced to in The Batman. Obviously there are many more Batman villains out there, but those are some pretty big ones!
Again, we do not appear to be diving into the DCU Batman world until The Brave and the Bold, which is not likely to arrive until 2026 or 2027, with Gunn’s Superman Legacy arriving in 2025. As for the Arkham show, Penguin is suppose to arrive some time in 2024, while The Batman 2 will be in late 2025. It feels like Arkham could arrive before Brave and the Bold at this pace. While we know that the DCU’s first Batman story will be about Bruce and his son Damian, one of the Robins, we have not heard anything about who the villain(s) would be for that film.
It’s just the latest odd note from Gunn’s DCU, which already is a bit confusing with DCEU characters and actors like Peacemaker and Amanda Waller carrying over even though their old projects shouldn’t be canon in the DCU itself. That’s along with Blue Beetle being DCU but that not being the first official DCU movie, which will be Legacy. Yes, sure, I totally understand all of this.
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