A new report may have revealed the release date window Warner Bros. is currently aiming for with The Batman. Coming off of his critically-acclaimed debut as the character in last year's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice -- the Ben Affleck-led solo film has quickly emerged over the past year as one of the more anticipated DCEU titles in the works right now. In fact, that's why so many fans were sent into a minor panic earlier this year, when it was announced that Ben Affleck had left as the director of the film, with follow-up reports stating that the actor and director could be considering quitting the Batman character altogether.
Fortunately, Warner Bros. and DC Films managed to keep the panic surrounding the film relatively low, when they quickly replaced Affleck with Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves, someone who even The Batman skeptics agreed was a good directorial fit for the project. However, even with Reeves' attached at the helm, the previously rumored 2018 release date for the film has been completely thrown away, leaving many fans to wonder when, exactly, The Batman may be released in theaters.
Now, it looks like Warner Bros.' tentative release date for the film may have been revealed. Included in a report yesterday about Matt Reeves starting from scratch on The Batman -- effectively scrapping Affleck and Geoff Johns' original script for it -- Variety states that The Batman is currently projected to have a 2019 release date. Make sure to take this with a grain of salt for the time being, though, since there were no other release details provided.
Assuming this release date is correct, it's worth noting that the timetable does make sense for the project. Essentially that would give Reeves a little more than the rest of this year to write and finish his script for the film, before then casting it sometime early next year, with a production schedule likely taking place sometime in the middle of next summer. And since the report doesn't specify when in 2019 the film could be hitting theaters, Reeves could have even more time to fine tune his vision for the film than that.
This possible 2019 release date also allows for some interesting speculation, regarding when in the DCEU timeline The Batman may take place. After all, if the film hit theaters before the already announced Justice League sequel -- which is currently set to be released in summer 2019 -- then it could very well be the DCEU's lead-in to that film. But on the flip side, The Batman could also be the first DCEU film to come out after the events of Justice League 2, which could give the film an interesting starting off point.
Again, make sure to take all of this with a grain of salt for right now, and whether Warners is truly planning on releasing The Batman in 2019 or not, this should at the very least, calm down fans who were worried The Batman may be rushed into production. With San Diego Comic-Con just a week away, it's entirely possible that the future of the DCEU may be shrouded in much less mystery and confusion by the time the annual convention is over.
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Source: Variety
