- The Batman Part 2 has been delayed once more
- DC sequel was expected to start filming in 2025
- Which cast members will return?
The Batman Part 2 is on the way – but it’s taking its sweet time getting here.
When it does finally arrive, it’ll take audiences back to Gotham City, a place where we seem to find ourselves more and more often these days.
Standing apart from both James Gunn’s freshly rebooted DC movieverse and Todd Phillips’ Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux stories, Matt Reeves’ The Batman brought us to a new Gotham to introduce us to a brand new Caped Crusader in 2022.
Read more: Everything we know about James Gunn’s Superman
Played by Robert Pattinson, this deeply Gothic take on Bruce Wayne and his masked alter-ego quickly caught people’s attention thanks to its gritty take on a familiar world. For his first outing, Reeves pitted his Dark Knight against Paul Dano’s Riddler and Colin Farrell’s Penguin, finding great success in the process.
A second film was quickly greenlit but two years later, we’re yet to see it on our screens. So what exactly do we know about the status of The Batman Part 2? Let’s take a look…
Does The Batman Part 2 have a release date?
The Batman Part II will be released on 1 October 2027. However, this wasn’t always the plan, with Reeves’ sequel experiencing a number of delays.
Before its 2027 arrival, The Batman Part 2 was set to hit cinemas on 2 October 2026 and before that, it was set for a 3 October 2025 debut date.
News of its most recent release plans were confirmed on 27 December 2024. Shortly afterwards, new DC boss Gunn defended the movie, suggesting that it was actually quite normal for movies to have multiple years between instalments.
Read more: James Gunn defends The Batman Part 2 delay
“To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels,” Gunn explained via a Threads post. “7 years between Alien and Aliens. 14 years between Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol 2 and Vol 3.”
The sequel was originally confirmed at CinemaCon in April 2022 with an original release date of 3 October 2025 in mind. However, in March 2024 it was revealed that The Batman will be shifting dates and not arriving until the following year.
In early 2023, the movie received the working title The Batman – Part II.
The push provides a nice bit of breathing room between Reeves’ second stand-alone Batman movie and Gunn’s upcoming Superman reboot which flies into cinemas on 11 July 2025 with David Corenswet in the leading role.
What is the plot?
We currently don’t know for sure what might happen in The Batman – Part II.
The film is still in the writing phase and as such, little is known about its story or what might happen when Pattinson’s Batman returns to the streets of Gotham.
By the time the credits rolled on Reeves’ first movie, Batman had managed to put a stop to the Riddler but Gotham had ended up flooded and underwater. While the Dark Knight was determined to help the city recover, a recently imprisoned Riddler befriended a new foe in Arkham Asylum when he met the Joker.
While nothing is confirmed, this pairing could form a story thread for The Batman – Part II.
Meanwhile, the release of spin-off series The Penguin has also teased potential plot points for Reeves’ sequel.
The show featured an appearance from Sofia Falcone, daughter of Gotham mobster Carmine Falcone, showing her grappling for power against Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot AKA the Penguin. Sofia is rumoured to play a key role in the movie’s follow-up but nothing has been officially confirmed thus far.
That said, while promoting the show, Reeves told Collider that the series would act as an “entrée into the next movie,” leading many to believe that its plot will directly connect to Batman’s next case. The film could also be set at Christmas thanks to the chronology of Farrell’s series.
These Penguin connections were further teased during an interview with Reeves and the show’s executive producer Dylan Clark who commented on how the events featured in the series will impact Cobblepot’s next appearance.
“From our movie, you don’t get a sense of how this character is going to become the kingpin,” explained Clark. “When he comes back into Movie Two, he’s not the same character that Batman interacted with.”
Speaking to Digital Spy, Reeves hinted at a difficult future ahead as Wayne finds it “very hard to be Batman.”
“This was a time of great turmoil in the city, it’s literally the week after what happened,” said Reeves, commenting on Batman’s absence in The Penguin. “Much of the city is in desperation, so police can’t get everywhere, there’s crime everywhere, it’s a very, very dangerous time.
“[Batman’s] out there trying to grapple with the aftermath of everything that happened, which to some degree he blames himself for.”
Plot-wise, that’s all the concrete information we have for The Batman – Part II for now. During an interview with Collider, Reeves confirmed that he still has plans to film a trilogy of movies but DC’s new co-boss Gunn dismissed rumours that parts two and three would film back-to-back.
Who is starring in the sequel?
So far, only a handful of stars have been confirmed to appear in The Batman – Part II. These include Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne / Batman, Farrell’s Penguin AKA Oswald Cobblepot, Andy Serkis as Bat-butler Alfred Pennyworth and Jeffrey Wright as Gotham’s Commissioner Gordon.
Speaking to the New York Times in December 2024, Pattinson briefly discussed his planned Bat-trilogy with Reeves, suggesting it could book-end his acting career.
“I could genuinely be retiring by the end of them,” said Pattinson. “Not in a million years did I think I’d still be doing this when I got my first job. I can’t believe this is still going.”
Elsewhere in the same chat, the Batman star shed some light on his approach to the character, saying that the two sides to the character appealed to him.
“That was my one idea for Bruce,” explained Pattinson. “He’s been portrayed until now as a playboy. But what if he’s completely socially inept and kind of agoraphobic?”
Wider casting news has yet to emerge but the potential remains for the return of Dano’s Riddler, the Joker, played briefly by Irish star Barry Keoghan in Reeves’ first film, and Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman AKA Selina Kyle. The latter played a key role in Reeves’ first movie.
If rumours are to be believed, The Penguin star Cristin Milioti could be set to return in The Batman – Part II as Sofia Falcone but this casting has yet to be made official.
While promoting The Penguin, chat turned to The Batman – Part II, with Farrell telling Digital Spy that “I heard Penguin features in it,” but confirmed that he was yet to read a script.
“It’d be interesting to see where we pick up from,” he continued. “There’s been so much pipe laid. It’d be interesting to see where it goes from here, you know? But he would be quite different.”
Farrell has also previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he heard he has “five or six scenes [in The Batman – Part II],” – although, as with most Batman – Part II news, this is yet to be officially confirmed.
During an interview with Screen Rant, Mattson Tomlin, writer of The Batman – Part II, suggested that filming for the sequel was on track to begin in 2025 so we’ll surely get some additional casting news soon enough.
