- The Penguin series on HBO Max will serve as a lead-in
- Reeves confirmed that filming will begin in 2024
- Robert Pattinson and Colin Farrell will reprise their roles as Batman and The Penguin
With The Penguin set to drop on HBO Max this month, The Batman director Matt Reeves has revealed the first few details of what to expect from the caped crusader’s next instalment, due for release in 2026.
The Batman – Part 2 was initially scheduled for release in October 2025, but was moved back a year. However The Penguin, which Reeves will also serve as an executive producer on, will serve as a lead-in to the second film in Reeves’ proposed trilogy, which will form what is being referred to as The Batman Epic Crime Saga.
Speaking to SFX Magazine (and transcribed by Deadline), the director has now finally let slip a few early details about what we should be expecting from the next part of the Gotham franchise, confirming that he is finishing up the script and that filming will begin next year.
“The plan is to shoot next year, and we’re finishing up the script now. Colin [Farrell] will be part of the movie. We’ve shared [the script] as we’ve been going along with DC and the studio and they’re super excited.”
Reeves also revealed that the next Batman film is “going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie, and it expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see.
“Batman is constantly battling these forces. But those forces can’t be entirely exorcised. So the next movie delves deeper into that.”
With reference to which other characters from the Batman universe may begin to appear in the saga, Reeves didn’t name any names, but did say, “What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythical characters that everybody knows, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world. We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded.”
Reeves continued, “It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do. Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.”
When it comes to The Penguin and how the upcoming series ties into everything, Reeves explained, “There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters that world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case. These stories to be a meditation on the way Gotham is the way it is. It’s such a brutal place and we’re digging for the answers as to why these people’s lives are this way.”
