Credit: DC Studios/Warner bros.Disney is well known for the amount of success they’ve had since acquiring Marvel Studios.
Avengers: Endgame (2019) was one of the top movies in terms of box office earnings, and the MCU has only continued to grow with series released to Disney+ and more movies being released each year. While Marvel has had a long line of films and shows in the last several years and has long been viewed as a leader in superhero films, DC is working to get its name up there as well. With the news of James Gunn leaving Marvel for DC, it’s possible that DC will see an MCU-like transformation beyond its current DCU.
One of the biggest DC films to come in recent years is Matt Reeves’s The Batman (2022). Featuring Robert Pattinson as Batman, the film was a Batman film independent of the current Justice League line-up. It included Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Penguin, and has been greenlit for both a sequel and a spinoff series for HBOMax. The Penguin will focus on Colin Farrell’s Penguin as he rises through Gotham’s criminal underbelly, but if fans are expecting another showdown between Penguin and Batman, unfortunately, they’ll be disappointed.
CBR reports that as Disney has bought and acquired various companies over the last several years, Batman is now stuck in a strange sort of limbo between Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers. The Adam West Batman TV series from the 1960s was produced by 20th Century Fox, who still owns the rights to the live-action portrayal of Batman on television. While Warner Brothers owns every other DC character, including Bruce Wayne, Disney bought the rights to Fox and now owns the rights to live-action Batman in costume on the smaller screen. This means that while an animated series with the character is free game, live-action series are off the table.
Because of that weird caveat, it seems very unlikely that viewers will see Batman in the HBO series, although they very well might see Robert Pattinson return, just as Bruce Wayne. It would give Pattinson and Reeves the chance to explore and develop the character of Bruce Wayne without worrying about Batman, which would still tie into the films. There’s still not much information revealed about The Penguin, although it is currently production, so fans will have to wait and see if the caped crusader will be allowed to make an appearance or not.