James Gunn, who Peter Safran says is the greatest superhero filmmaker of our time, is doing what any new boss at DC Studios would: reboot Superman (which arrives in theatres on July 11, 2025), revive the DC brand, and try not to repeat the mistakes that tanked his competitors, Marvel and Sony. But there’s one thing standing in his way: Batman.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gunn didn’t sugarcoat it: “Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally.” And that’s because, on paper, DC currently has two Batmen and no real plan to unite, or separate, them properly. Robert Pattinson’s broody vigilante is still doing his thing in Matt Reeves’ universe, while Gunn is cooking up The Brave and the Bold, a separate Batman movie featuring Damian Wayne. Andy Muschietti (The Flash) is attached to direct, and as of early 2025, the script is still in development.
Pattinson’s The Batman Part II isn’t canceled, despite the internet saying otherwise. It’s just… slow. “Matt’s slow,” Gunn said. “Let him take his time. Let him do what he’s doing. God, people are mean.”
So while Reeves is off perfecting another masterpiece, Gunn’s stuck waiting, while also developing his own Batman story that won’t overlap. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is exactly the kind of headache Marvel and Sony have with Spider-Man.
Over at Sony, Spider-Man technically belongs to them, but Marvel Studios has been borrowing him (aka Tom Holland) for the MCU. So Tom Holland gets to swing around in Avengers: Endgame and many of the other Marvel-related properties. The problem is that Sony’s been trying to build its own Spidey-adjacent universe, without Peter Parker. Hence, Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and Madame Web, all villain-centric films, are missing the one guy tying them all together. It’s no coincidence, then, that they’ve all bombed pretty hard.
Why have a Spider-Man universe without Spider-Man? And, why have a DC Universe without Batman?
Sure, Reeves’ Bat-verse is thriving. The Penguin spin-off won awards, the Clayface movie (starring Tom Rhys Harries, out Sept 11, 2026) is coming, and Pattinson’s version still has fans excited. However, none of it connects to Gunn’s rebooted DCU, which is supposed to be the main universe going forward. That’s where The Brave and the Bold is meant to live. Yet, no Batman actor has been cast. No production start date has been announced. And Gunn, who’s usually open with fans, has been strangely quiet about it all.
“Batman has to have a reason for existing,” Gunn said. “He can’t just be ‘we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.’”
What’s really going on? Is this just a slow development cycle, or are there behind-the-scenes power struggles at Warner Bros. again? Remember the Zack Snyder Justice League saga? Or Dwayne Johnson trying to hijack the DC hierarchy with Black Adam?
The messy logistics of juggling Matt Reeves’ BatVerse while trying to build a new Dark Knight for the DCU are almost exactly Sony’s Spider-Man problem. So yes, James Gunn has a Spider-Man problem. But instead of radioactive spiders, it’s all about capes, scripts, and waiting for someone — anyone — to say, “I’m Batman” again.
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