‘Matt’s slow’: James Gunn makes surprising admission about The Batman 2 amid cancellation rumors

DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has shared a surprising update about The Batman Part II, amid false rumors that it has been canceled.

Last March, it was announced that the sequel to Matt Reeves’s acclaimed 2022 DC superhero noir, starring Robert Pattinson, had been delayed by a full year, with it now expected to arrive in theaters on October 2, 2026.

Still, there have been doubts about whether it will actually be released.

However, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn, 58, who took over DC Studios with Peter Safran in 2022, assured fans that Reeves is still working on the script for the long-awaited Batman Part II.

“That’s the other thing I hear all the time — that Batman Part II is canceled. It’s not canceled. We don’t have a script. Matt’s slow,” the Superman director said, urging fans to “let him take his time. Let him do what he’s doing. God, people are mean. Let him do his thing, man.”

Asked if there was any chance Reeves’s iteration of Batman could be “sucked” into the DCU, Gunn said: “I would never say zero, because you just never know. But it’s not likely. It’s not likely at all.”

Reeves’s The Batman is not a part of the DCU; instead, it exists within its own universe, sometimes referred to as The Batman Epic Crime Saga.

Gunn and Safran have since revealed that DC Studios is indeed working to introduce Batman into the DCU in a new movie, currently titled The Brave and the Bold.

“Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally,” Gunn told Rolling Stone. “And it’s not — I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it right, because he’s incredibly important to DC.”

He added that completing the Batman script is among the studio’s top priorities.

Explaining what needs to be figured out to ensure Batman fits in the DCU, Gunn said: “Batman has to have a reason for existing, right? So Batman can’t just be ‘Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,’ which he is.

“But because there’s a need for him in the DCU and a need that he’s not exactly the same as Matt’s Batman. But yet he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that,” he added.

“I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. So we’re dealing with that. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it’s — I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality.”

Gunn’s latest superhero movie, Superman, which is out in theaters July 11, welcomes David Corenswet as Henry Cavill’s replacement as the Man of Steel, opposite The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Rachel Brosnahan as his love interest, Lois Lane.

Additional cast members include Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, and Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer.