'The Batman Part 2' Has Been Delayed Until Fall 2026

By Brian Richards | DC Movies | March 12, 2024 |

By Brian Richards | DC Movies | March 12, 2024 |

This afternoon, it was officially announced that The Batman Part II, the highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed box office hit The Batman, will not meet its originally scheduled release date of October 3, 2025, but will now open in theaters on October 2, 2026.

From Deadline Hollywood:

Matt Reeves’ The Batman 2 is no longer opening on Oct. 3, 2025 - a new launchpad for comic book movies - rather Oct. 2, 2026. We hear the new date is due to the aftermath of the dual strikes.

The spacing will also give some distance from James Gunn’s Superman movie which is hitting cinemas on July 11, 2025. That film will kick off Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC Studios, the first phase entitled “Gods and Monsters.”

Reeves’ Batman is not part of the Gunn universe, but it’s all kosher to co-exist. Gunn has another Batman movie in the works with Andy Muschietti directing, Batman: Brave and the Bold. Robert Pattinson plays Batman in Reeves’ universe. The role will be re-cast for the Muschietti version.

The news isn’t entirely surprising to fans who were eagerly following The Batman Part II’s development process. For the past few months, there have been news and casting decisions announced about writer/director/co-CEO of DC Studios James Gunn’s upcoming Superman, which is expected to be released July 11, 2025. But nothing was being announced about a Batman sequel scheduled for release three months later. Some fans theorized that Reeves and his co-writers are writing the screenplays for Parts 2 and 3 of The Batman at the same time. Others suspected that Gunn might attempt to either shut down the project, so that the only Batman appearing on the big screen would be the DCU version being introduced in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, or was attempting to convince Reeves to change his tune about his Batman being an Elseworlds version of the Caped Crusader, and allow him to become part of the DCU. Keep in mind that Reeves’ version of Batman (played by Robert Pattinson) was only in his second year of crimefighting in Gotham City, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold will feature an experienced Batman in his prime. The film is expected to introduce the Damian Wayne version of Robin, along with several members of the Bat-Family.

This means that we will now have an extra year of fans wishing, hoping, and theorizing about what they want to see in The Batman Part II. Will the main villain be Mr. Freeze or Clayface? Is Barry Keoghan’s version of The Joker going to make another appearance, and will we see him onscreen opposite Batman this time around? Is Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Robin, going to be introduced? Has Batman improved his fluency in Spanish, so that he no longer confuses “el” with “la?”

Until we get answers to all of those questions in 2026, we still have Colin Farrell reprising his role as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot to look forward to. His rise to the top of Gotham City’s criminal food chain in the HBO Max series The Penguin is expected to premiere this fall.