The Batman Part II: Release date, cast and latest sequel news

The movie will see Robert Pattinson reprise his role as the Caped Crusader, and writer and director Reeves will also be back to helm the project and its spin-offs - despite the other DC plans on the way from James Gunn.

Gunn revealed in an official announcement on Tuesday 31st January 2023 that: "Matt is working on [The Batman Part II], which he thinks of as a Batman crime saga, which also includes the Penguin TV series.

"And it is its own thing and he's hard at work on that. He came in and pitched us some amazing, really cool stuff the other day. So our plan is for that to continue."

It's hardly surprising. The Batman was released on 4th March 2022, with Reeves's dark new take on the iconic Gotham City superhero smashing records at the box office on its opening weekend.

It went on to rake in $134 million domestically, making it the second-largest launch of the pandemic era after Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $260m back in December 2021. It was the largest weekend for Warner Bros in five years and the best ever start for filmmaker Reeves.

"It’s fun to see the public really embrace the movie," Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros, told Variety.

"Since the movie is three hours long, it became appointment viewing. That bodes well for its run on the big screen. It helps that the word of mouth is so strong."

The Batman takes place just two years into Bruce Wayne’s journey as Batman, as he descends into darkness to track down a new enemy: the Riddler (Paul Dano). Pattinson is joined by a star-studded cast including Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Andy Serkis as Alfred and Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon.

The ending of the movie teases an intriguing future for the characters and for Gotham City, leaving plenty of room for more stories in Pattinson’s Batman universe.

But which Batman villains will appear in The Batman’s sequel? Read on for everything we know about The Batman Part II. Be warned: spoilers for The Batman follow.

The Batman Part II release date

We still have a couple of years to wait, with the film now scheduled to be released in cinemas on Friday 2nd October 2026.

That's a year later than the initially planned release date of Friday 3rd October 2025, which is due to production delays caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023.

Warner Bros first officially announced there would be a Batman sequel at CinemaCon 2022.

"Matt took one of our most iconic and beloved superheroes and delivered a fresh vision," Warner Bros movie chief Toby Emmerich said during the panel. "Matt Reeves, Rob Pattinson and the entire team will be taking audiences back to Gotham with The Batman 2."

Reeves added: "I just want to echo what Toby said and thank you all for your tremendous support for The Batman. We could have gotten here without the faith, enthusiasm and hard work of everyone in this room and your amazing teams here around the world.

"Every part of this journey has been thrilling for me as a filmmaker and a huge fan of this character, and I'm excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter."

The title was confirmed on 31st January 2023 to be called The Batman Part II.

The Batman Part II cast and character speculation

Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz will be reprising their roles as billionaire socialite Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, and Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in The Batman Part II, it was confirmed at CinemaCon 2022.

Pattinson previously discussed his intentions for the trilogy in a 2021 interview with Empire, noting: "I’ve made a kind of map for where Bruce’s psychology would grow over two more movies. I would love to do it."

He also confirmed that if Warner Bros was to approach him about reprising his role once or twice more, he wouldn’t hesitate to say yes.

"I would love to do it," Pattinson said, as producer Dylan Clark added: "As the first stand-alone Batman in 10 years, the hope is we can lay a foundation that you can build stories upon."

There's also plenty of scope for more character development when it comes to Selina Kyle (Big Little Lies' Zoë Kravitz), who is clearly still developing her alter-ego of Catwoman in The Batman.

The same goes for detective James Gordon (Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright), who's only a lieutenant in The Batman rather than a Commissioner, as he's more widely known.

Sadly, John Turturro is unlikely to return as Falcone after he was shot and killed by antagonist The Riddler/Edward Nashton (Paul Dano), and the same goes for Peter Sarsgaard as the late DA Gil Colson.

However, we wouldn't be surprised if Colin Farrell ends up returning as Penguin for the inevitable sequel and building on his role in the first movie.

In a recent interview on the Happy, Sad, Confused Podcast, Farrell spoke about his small role.

"I'm only in it for five or six scenes, so I can't wait to see the film because it won't be ruined by my presence," he said. "Really, it's a freebie for me. I'll get a little bit uncomfortable for the f*****g nine minutes I have, and then the rest of it, I cannot wait to see how [Matt] brought this world to life."

Following the death of Falcone, Penguin is in a great place to take over Falcone's drug operation in a sequel.

It's also likely that Dano would reprise his role as The Riddler.

"If I'm called back to Gotham, I'll be there," Dano recently told RadioTimes.com when asked about potential sequels.

The Batman Part II plot speculation

Unsurprisingly, specific plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but Pattinson has shared which Batman villains he would like to see tackled next in the series.

"I’d love to do something like Court of Owls," the actor told Den of Geek, adding: "There are elements of The Batman which are kind of horror and I think it really feels quite new for Batman."

Pattinson has also mentioned the killer Calendar Man as a potential villain, as well as Mr Freeze.

Reeves recently told Collider that he wanted to do explore a more "grounded" take on Mr Freeze, explaining: "In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr Freeze, that is such a great story, right?

"I think there's actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great."

Asked around the time of the first film's release whether there were any specific comics he'd like to see adapted for a sequel, producer Dylan Clark was rather more vague.

"I think it's incumbent on us to create new stories that are true to the comics that people know and love," he told RadioTimes.com.

"So, you know, on this one, Robert read all the comics and there were certain things that we borrowed from multiple storylines.

"But really, Matt wanted to create a unique way into Batman and create a unique story. And then my hope is that people go, 'Oh, that's from Long Halloween, that's from Year One, is that a little bit of Killing Joke? And is that Arkham Asylum there?' Those things are important to us, but really for us we wanted to do our own story."

Clark also said the creative team "inevitably" had ideas about sequels, but remained relatively tight-lipped about what those ideas might be.

"Do we have ideas about the sequels? You just inevitably do, because you'll start to say, you know, wouldn't it be cool if... you know, what we haven't seen yet. And, you know, we didn't get enough of Alfred in this movie, or, you know, Gordon's gonna do this in his career.

"So, you know, with 80 years of Batman in the canon and all these great comics, there are multiple storylines that are just exciting."

Is there a trailer for a sequel?

Hold your horses!

It's far too early for a trailer, but now that a sequel has been given the go-ahead, fans might not have too long to wait.

Watch this space!

• Read More: The Batman ending explained: How does Robert Pattinson film end?
• Read More: How to watch Batman movies in order and where to stream
• Read More: The Batman producer reveals there are “inevitably” ideas for sequels
• Read more: The Batman soundtrack - full list of music in DC Comics film

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