The DCU franchise will get its big launch with James Gunn’s Superman movie next year – but don’t expect a Batman movie to follow closely behind it. In a new interview, filmmaker Andy Muschietti (IT, The Flash) revealed that DC Studios has hit “pause” on its development of the Batman film The Brave and the Bold, which Muschietti is attached to direct. That will be both disappointing news for Batman fans and a springboard to renewed questions about how Warner Bros. and DC Studios are juggling multiple Batman movie franchises.
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Speaking with Sebastián De Caro of California Secreta, Muschietti said (in the loose translation of the Spanish) that “The Batman [The Brave and The Bold] project has been postponed a little bit. I might do another film before that.”
That statement coincides with what DC Studios head James Gunn has been indicating for some time now. Early in December, when launching his new DCU animated series, Creature Commandos, Gunn addressed where things stand with highly-anticipated projects like The Brave and the Bold:
“From the beginning, I’ve made it clear that the one thing that we’re gonna do at DC is, no matter what, we’re going to wait until the screenplays and the teleplays are ready before we shoot them. And I’m not going to shoot anything until I’m happy with it,” Gunn said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, later adding that, “I have to feel it in my heart… Other things aren’t quite there yet. Booster Gold‘s not quite there, Waller isn’t quite there, Brave and the Bold isn’t quite there. They’re not quite where I want them to be yet.”
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On the surface level, that sounds like a noble creative strategy to go by: quality control at the pre-production stage. However, by now fans also know the internal politics that go with these franchise universe brands, and how they’ve evolved in the last few years. From a production and budgeting standpoint, DC Studios and WB seem to be going with a cautious ‘wait and see’ approach, where major projects like a Batman film could arguably change based on fan responses to the other franchise projects. Superman will likely be a major litmus test for how WB budgets these DCU films, and what sort of scope and scale they have. Most of the bigger blockbuster movie plans are probably on pause until then.
In the case of Batman, specifically, there’s also the issue of brand confusion with Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise. That series is a standalone franchise not attached to the DCU or Superman; with The Batman: Part II set for release in October of 2026, the next two years are already dedicated to getting that sequel film shot, finished, and released in theaters. There was question after the big success of The Penguin spinoff series if DC/WB would release The Batman 2 and The Brave and Bold back-to-back – but now that seems like it won’t be the case.
If Andy Muschietti isn’t gearing up for production on The Brave and the Bold next year, then it’s looking like 2028 or 2029 would be the earliest we see the film in theaters. The only question between now and then is how Gunn will address Batman’s presence in the DCU outside of a solo movie. There’s already a Robins animated series in development for 2028 (Dynamic Duo) and Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing is expected to be a lead in the Teen Titans DCU movie that’s also in the works. Between all those members of the Batman Family being active, a Superman movie introducing the larger world of the DCU, and even Creature Commandos already giving us an animated Batman, it seems like we can’t go very long without a live-action Batman appearing onscreen.
Creature Commandos is currently streaming on Max. Superman will be released in theaters on July 11, 2025.
