The Batman director Matt Reeves addresses whether or not the franchise is still going to be a trilogy.
The Batman franchise will (finally) continue this week with the premiere of The Penguin on HBO and Max, while in the background, director/producer Matt Reeves is also getting to work on The Batman 2. However, The Batman franchise has had to navigate some of the most turbulent waters in DC movie history; the first film had to film in fractured bits during the COVID pandemic, wihle the second film (and its TV spinoffs) had had to navigate the Hollywood strikes, as well as Warner Bros. launching DC Studios, and an entirely new DC Universe franchise to go along with it.
Long ago, The Batman was pitched as a trilogy of films – but now, it’s been a feat just getting confirmation that the sequel is still happening. So is there any possibility at all that The Batman 3 will follow The Batman 2?
Based on his latest interview, Matt Reeves has fans holding out hope that The Batman Trilogy is still in the plans: “Yes, that is still the plan,” Reeves said to Collider. “I mean, it’s sticking very closely to the path we envisioned.”
As stated, The Batman franchise has had to navigate some pretty complicated situations since it began production. Even if the trilogy is still the overall plan, Reeves openly admitted that the original plan is now in flux:
“Things kind of shifted,” Reeves explained. “So, when we came up with the idea to do The Penguin, that was something where I had always intended to continue Penguin’s story and wanted to tell this story of his beginning of rise to power. Because we know that he’s introduced in The Batman as a kind of mid-level, sort of overlooked, mocked figure, who’s not yet in anyone’s eyes the kingpin we come to know him as in the lore. And so, that was deliberate because I wanted – whereas it wasn’t Batman’s origin story – I wanted the origin stories of these other characters, of the Rogues Gallery and that story was originally going to be the entrée into the next movie.”
Plans for The Batman Universe have definitely changed in the years since the first film’s release (2022). As Reeves indicates, the larger Batman rogues gallery was supposed to get established before The Batman 2 – not just Colin Farrell’s Penguin. That would’ve presumably been the Arkham Asylum TV series Reeves pitched back in 2022, while a third spinoff about a corrupt cop in the Gotham City Police Department would’ve fleshed out more of Gotham City’s legal and political circles. Both the GCPD and Arkham series died in development – or at least, they’re not in the plans for before The Batman 2. How that will change the story of the sequel film, and the spinoffs that could follow, remains to be seen.
The Batman 2 has a release date of October 2, 2026. The Penguin will debut on HBO and Max this week.
