The much-awaited upcoming DC movie ‘The Batman’ which will feature Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, is set to hit the theatres in approximately a week’s time on 4th March. The excitement for Matt Reeves’ project is as high as it gets and fans are eager to see what the Planet of the Apes fame director has in store for the character.
While it is nice having so many Batman in the DC Cinematic Universe at the same time, it poses a big problem. And this is exactly what separates DCEU from MCU.
The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be attributed to one thing only – the beautifully interwoven storyline of each and every MCU movie which connects every superhero with each other. This was what allowed them to make the big budget collab movies like the Avengers series. The rest as they say is history.
The Problem with DCEU
Unlike MCU, the DCEU is way too messed up. There have been over 3 Batmans. 3 Jokers and 2 Super-Mans in the span of the last decade. Let’s take up the Joker for an instant. He was first played by Heath Ledger in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, by Jared Leto in Zack Snyder’s Justice League and the Suicide squad. Just a few years later, DCEU made an origin story on Joker featuring Joaquin Phoenix. So the question is if they want to make an encounter between say Joker and Batman possible, which version of the two characters will the DC chose to show? This is what leads to the confusion.
Thus, even if the fans wanted to see action between Robert Pattinson’s Batman and DC’s Superman, chances are, it is never going to happen.
Robert Pattinson’s Explanation
However, on being asked about whether we could see Superman alongside Robert Pattinson’s Batman, the actor gave a cunning response. He said that if a Justice League character appears in a Batman movie, it ceases to remain a Batman movie any longer. There is a different tone in the setting of the two characters and thus it would be better if they made Batman a stand-alone movie. Even if Superman were to appear in a Batman movie, his powers could not be showcased.
“Like, we were talking the other day, like, ‘Can you add Superman into it but he just doesn’t have any powers? He’s just a guy in a cape?’ He’s just like, ‘I’m Superman!’ And they’re like, ‘So?’” Pattinson said.
His colleague Selina Kyle, who plays Catwoman in the movie, added that the worlds of Superman and Batman kind of just don’t work together.
Matt Reeves’ Batman is not in the DC Extended Universe
Moreover, director Matt Reeves has announced that he is creating a Bat-verse of himself including characters like Riddler, Penguin, etc and that The Batman(2022) is not a part of the DC Extended Universe. This just brings us back to the whole problem of the DC Cinematic Universe. Although it is an interesting prospect, the future of such a Bat-Verse that is separated from the rest of DCEU does not seem to have a long time effectivity.