What The Batman TV Show Means For Robert Pattinson's Future

Matt Reeves has officially begun work on a spinoff TV series for The Batman - and the news has exciting implications for Robert Pattinson's version of the Dark Knight. Excitement is building for Robert Pattison's debut in The Batman, with the cast sounding confident he'll be one of the greats.

Warner Bros. and HBO are clearly confident too. They've just announced a spinoff Batman TV series, a police procedural that may well be strongly influenced by Greg Rucka's classic Gotham Central series. Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter has signed up as writer and showrunner, while Reeves himself will be serving as producer for the as-yet-unnamed spinoff. "This is an amazing opportunity," Reeves enthused in an official statement, "not only to expand the vision of the world I am creating in the film, but to explore it in the kind of depth and detail that only a longform format can afford."

Details may be sparse right now, but the ambition behind this announcement is clear for all to see. There had already been reports Reeves intended to make The Batman the first film in a trilogy, but now the scale of the project has broadened even further. Being the first installment in a new Batman franchise - one that extends to TV as well - is a massive step forward.

DC Is Building A Universe Around Pattinson's Batman

The last decade has seen film studios focus their efforts on creating shared cinematic universes, and indeed DC made a solid attempt at just that in the DCEU. Joker marked a successful deviation from this pattern, however, as an "Elseworlds" movie disconnected to the DCEU. That approach is continuing with Matt Reeves' The Batman, which again is unrelated to the DCEU, Ben Affleck's portrayal, and various versions of the events of Justice League. The studio is incorporating the idea of the Multiverse in The Flash, so some kind of loose crossover can't be entirely ruled out, but for now all evidence suggests this is a whole new universe.

And make no mistake; Matt Reeves is now building a universe. Batman films have long had a tradition of rich world-building, running all the way back to Tim Burton's iconic portrayal of Gotham City in 1989's Batman, and Reeves has been visibly excited at continuing in this vein. But now his Gotham City is being fleshed out in a longform format, and it's reasonable to assume secondary characters from The Batman - such as Jeffrey Wright's Commissioner Gordon or Peter Sarsgaard's Gotham DA Gil Colson - will be fleshed out on the small screen. If this is a success, Pattinson will have the unique distinction of being the Batman who stands at the center of a transmedia universe.

Pattinson's Batman Could Setup More Movies & TV Shows

Batman has one of the most well-developed worlds in superhero comics. He has a rich supporting cast, a tremendous rogues' gallery, and a wide family of popular and beloved allies. Given that's the case, it comes as no surprise HBO's announcement confirms their intention to launch "a new Batman universe across multiple platforms," meaning this spinoff is intended to be the first of many. Projects that have long been in discussion - ranging from Batgirl to Nightwing - could well be reworked to become part of Pattinson and Reeves' Bat-universe.

The key to making this work will be ensuring there is a strong narrative link between The Batman and any spinoffs. Otherwise, The Batman will simply face the same problems that previously haunted Marvel Studios and Marvel Television, where projects were initially supposed to coexist but diverged as time went by. Fortunately, at present it looks as though Warner Bros. and HBO have learned from Marvel's mistakes, because Reeves is both writer-director of The Batman and producer of this "Gotham Central" series. The powers-that-be would be wise to maintain this approach, with Reeves' involvement ensuring everything remains consistent and connected.

Robert Pattinson Is Batman's Future (Despite Multiple Actors Playing The Character)

The next two years promise to bring multiple different portrayals of Batman to the big and small screens. Ben Affleck is returning as the DCEU's Batman in the Justice League Snyder Cut, another HBO Max original. Meanwhile, Michael Keaton is currently in talks to reprise his version of Batman, as seen in 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns. This is happening courtesy of the Multiverse, with Keaton's Batman identified as originating from "Earth-89" in the Arrowverse's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event and evidently figuring out how to cross the dimensions. Finally, Batwoman season 1 introduced a doppelganger of the Arrowverse's Bruce Wayne, played by Warren Christie, and it's possible the real deal will appear in season 2. There are a lot of different versions of Batman in play at the same time.

For all that's the case, though, the fact remains none of these other portrayals are standing at the center of their own shared universe. Affleck's Batman seems to have no future beyond the Justice League Snyder Cut, given the DCEU is introducing Keaton. For his part, Keaton will be a very different iteration of the Dark Knight, a seasoned Multiversal hero who may well play a Nick-Fury-esque mentor role to the Justice League. And Warren Christie is currently just a Bruce Wayne impostor in a series where the focus will be on the new Batwoman, who has no direct connection to Batman at all. As far as DC and Warner Bros. are concerned, it's clear Robert Pattinson embodies the future of the Batman franchise, with Matt Reeves in charge of it. The future couldn't be brighter for Pattinson's Dark Knight.

Will Pattinson's Batman Appear In The Gotham Central TV Show?

Of course, this raises one obvious question; if The Batman exists in the same universe as this Gotham City spinoff, does that mean he'll actually be making an appearance in the show? It's possible, but if so it won't be any more than a cameo, at most the kind of brief appearance made by Samuel L. Jackson or Cobie Smulders as Nick Fury and Maria Hill in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD season 1. That's for the best, because in thematic terms this spinoff appears to be loosely inspired by Greg Rucka's award-winning Gotham Central series. That story explored what it was like for the police to live in the shadow of the Batman; the Dark Knight made occasional cameos, but the real focus was on the members of the GCPD as they struggled to navigate the insane underworld of Gotham.

This is a far more interesting concept, because there's no real interest in a series where a starring character can suddenly escape any threat because Batman has swooped down from the sky. What's more, in part, the purpose of this spinoff appears to be an attempt to make Gotham City seem like a real place, a massive city where Batman can't be everywhere. For him to then turn up a lot would, therefore, defeat the objective. So don't necessarily expect Robert Pattinson to appear much in this series, even if it is a spinoff of The Batman.

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