Perhaps the most splendid payoff from Matt Reeves’ The Batman is that it has the potential for opening up an entire Batverse of movies and TV shows. This is a movie that resets the dark knight mythos in the same way Batman Begins did in 2005 after the debacle that was Batman & Robin. For long-term fans of the caped crusader, it’s like a warm bath in all that Gotham City good stuff, with the implication that more mysteries lurk around every corner for Batman as he cuts through corrupt cops and hardboiled gangsters.
So what comes next? We already know that Colin Farrell’s remarkable, unrecognisable turn as Oswald Cobblepot is to be rewarded with a spin-off TV show that will screen on HBO Max in the US. And there are also rumours that Arkham Asylum, which by the end of Reeves’ movie has been revealed as the new home of not just Paul Dano’s Riddler but also Barry Keoghan’s Joker, will form the basis of a second segue to the small screen. It’s more than possible Robert Pattinson’s Batman might turn up from time to time in either, but both shows will have to find storylines that swirl far beyond his immediate sphere of influence.
The Batman ends with the Joker and the Riddler at the apparent beginning of a poisonous friendship, a development that could drive the proposed Arkham Asylum series forward if Warner Bros decides to borrow from the storyline of the classic comic book War of Jokes and Riddles. But what about The Bat’s next big-screen outing?
Reeves has already gone on record to say that any sequel will most likely feature a different supervillain and that the climactic reveal should not be read as a Marvel-style setup up for future episodes (though Christopher Nolan pulled a similar trick in Batman Begins and did go on to give us the definitive Batman/Joker film). But it tallies with the sense that Reeves is ploughing his own unorthodox furrow with Gotham’s favourite son.
Moreover, if the deliciously languid pace of The Batman is to be echoed in future instalments, Reeves needs to retain the air of foreboding and enigma that allowed Battinson to slip into “world’s greatest detective” mode. Dano’s brutal Riddler was the perfect foil, but other villains who employ subterfuge and sleight of hand, such as Hush or Ra’s Al Ghul, might fit the new template more comfortably thanmore physical enemies such as Bane.
Reeves has suggested that Hush is in his thoughts, though not necessarily for The Batman’s sequel. And there are even hints in his film that Thomas Elliot, who has ready-made connections to the Riddler and Catwoman, could already be present in this arty and unhurried take on Gotham City. Then again, so could any of the caped crusader’s traditional rogue’s gallery of supervillains.
That’s the beauty of The Batman and its vision of Gotham City as an enormous, spiky puzzle waiting to be solved. We’re right at the beginning of this epic comic book conundrum, and there’s no knowing which dark and dastardly players are biding their time for the later, ever-more lucrative climactic rounds.
