James Gunn's Batman Is the One Taking the Backseat Now

Regular readers of the site will know that I spent an unhinged amount of time fully convinced that The Batman Part II will never see the light of day. I would’ve bet cash money that Robert Battinson was about to get shunted in favor of The Brave and the Bold, which will fully bring an all-new Batman into James Gunn’s burgeoning DCU.

You’re never going to believe this, I was wrong. (Can you hear my wife saying “Big surprise” in the background? That poor woman is a saint.)

In the past few days, a surprising number of developments have occurred. Most notably, Gunn fielding fan questions on Threads, as he often does, where he was remarkably candid about the state of The Brave and the Bold, which as of this writing, is still being helmed by Andy Muschietti. Despite Gunn saying that the script was in a good place during the Superman press rounds, that no longer seems to be the case, and we’ll get to that in a minute. Here’s what Gunn told a fan who asked what time this year folks can expect on the DCU Batman film.

“I’m dependent on when there’s an actionable script ready so there is no way of me guessing this. Also, frankly, we’re well into Batman 2, and I wouldn’t want to cloud the Batsphere until after that.”

Just so we’re all clear, that’s James Gunn publicly stating that The Brave and the Bold is officially on the back-burner while The Batman Part II does its thing. A movie that doesn’t start filming until later this year and won’t hit theaters until October 2027. And that’s if it doesn’t get delayed for the 25th time.

When fans started whining that Gunn’s DCU will go without a Batman for too long, he drew a hard line in the sand.

“I think both Batman and [Wonder Woman] are incredibly important,” Gunn wrote. “But I’m also not going to have two Batman movies come out in the same year.”

That was earlier in the week. On Wednesday, The Brave and the Bold got another interesting update. Christina Hodson has been confirmed as the writer for The Brave and the Bold. Hodson is no stranger to DC as she previously worked on Birds of Prey and The Flash, with the latter causing a huge nerd freakout as the news broke. I’m not going to spend too much time on that, but I will say The Flash is actually good until it turns into a CGI mixing bowl of dumb in the finale. Also, not for nothing, Andy Muschietti directed The Flash, and he hasn’t got anywhere near as much flak as this news. Gee, I wonder why.

Via THR:

It is unclear how far along is Brave and the Bold in the writing process. DC Studios had no comment on Hodson’s involvement.

One source said the scribe had been working on the project since at least the fall. Another source said that it would be some time before a definitive draft comes in as the studio is taking a measured approach to its development.

Not that my opinion is worth much at this point (See: Being completely wrong about The Batman II, liking The Flash), Hodson’s involvement is a good thing. She has a reputation for turning in killer scripts while Warner Bros. was trying to salvage the DCEU ship, and God knows how much studio meddling she put up with during that endeavor. With Gunn being laser-focused on locking in scripts before filming and holding strong against corporate interference (so far), this might give Hodson’s work a better chance to shine.

Or this is all an elaborate ruse to tank The Brave and the Bold and absorb Robert Pattinson into the DCU. I knew it! Get me a wall of string.