Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | October 30, 2026
Earlier this week, James Gunn fired back at online fans who feel that his DCU isn’t really building towards anything after Clayface contained a noticeable lack of Batman. Despite Gunn never promising as much, people expected at least some sort of tease towards the DCU’s Dark Knight besides Gotham City existing, and that did not happen. It was a dicey move considering the very public failure of the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters a.k.a. the Spider-Man movies that couldn’t have Spider-Man in them.
“I dislike the idea that individual stories aren’t meaningful unless they lead to something else,” Gunn wrote on Threads. “People not understanding this is strange to me.”
That was Saturday. By Tuesday, he clarified that the DCU always planned to focus on the “diamond characters” of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman before teasing what sure feels like a whole lot of connectivity that he just said wasn’t important. “It’s exciting seeing things START to come together and all that makes me even more excited for what we have in store for everyone in Man of Tomorrow.”
Fast forward to Thursday where Gunn hosted The Suicide Squad: Is It Canon? podcast where he was suddenly very talkative about Batman. Until now, Gunn has noticeably been punting any discussion of Bats down the road, even going so far as to say that he wants to avoid having a DCU Batman running around until Robert Pattinson presumably exits the character after The Batman: Part II.
On that note, Gunn seems to fully put a nail in the coffin of Pattinson being folded into the DCU. For starters, Gunn wants whoever plays the DCU Batman to be the same age as David Corenswet’s Superman, so we’re talking early 30s. This next piece of information is going to feel like violence, but Robert Pattinson is already in his 40s. There’s also the following remarks from Gunn.
Via Variety:
“It won’t be too long before we’re casting Batman. We haven’t cast yet, by the way — all the people thinking he’ll show up in this or that, it’s all bullsh*t,” he said. “When we do cast the DCU Batman, which isn’t very far away, if I gave somebody a day role in ‘The Suicide Squad’ that is going to be the best Batman, I’m not going to rule him out from that. I want to get everybody into account. One of the things that excites me about casting Batman is being able to pick a Batman who’s actually the best actor for that role. Superman’s have always been chosen based on who the best actor for that role is. And for some reason, Batman’s are always chosen as movie stars.”
Oof. Alright, James, tell us how you really feel. As for why Gunn is suddenly pressing the Batman button is anybody’s guess. Clayface won the box office and is already making money. This just feels sweaty for no reason, and if the move is to get more people into Clayface by pumping up DCU Batman even though there is no DCU Batman, I guess that’s something you could do?
