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Batman rumour roundup

April 11th, 2017 by Dave Bowling Comments

There’s some rumours flying round concerning Warners’ plans for Gotham City’s favourite man who dresses up like a bat (sorry Man-Bat, them’s the facts). And here they are.

We caution you from the start, NONE of this is remotely confirmed. Not one shred. But in the spirit of keeping you guys in the loop, here it is. Make of this what you will. Needless to say, if any of this ever turns out to be right, this report will contain some fairly epic ***SPOILERS***. Read at your own risk.

Firstly, reports are that Warners are planning to make four (yes, FOUR!) Batman movies for 2019. This report comes from Reddit via 4chan, so I’m personally taking it with a pinch of salt so large that it borders on a lethal dose:

The plan for 2019 is to release four Batman related films. Gotham City Sirens around Valentine’s Day weekend, Nightwing on Memorial Day weekend, Batgirl in August and The Batman in November. The studio is doing this to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Batman.

Okay, let’s get this out of the way straight off the mark: I freakin’ love Batman. I’ve been enraptured ever since I first saw the first Tim Burton movie when I was a kid. When Batman is done right, it is fantastic. But when it’s done badly (Batman & Robin or The Killing Joke animation, anyone?) it sucks with the force of a Category 5 hurricane. I can’t help but think that four Batman movies in one year is not just overkill but will detract from overall quality by splitting the effort that could be put into making one or two high-quality movies.

Next, the latest leak to come out of the Warner studio concerns the plot of the standalone Batfleck movie. Claims are that Deathstroke will feature, but won’t be the main villain:

The Batman film will still have Deathstroke but not as a main villain. Matt Reeves wants to do a larger scale Batman film that will include the Bat family as well as most of Batman’s rogues.

Plot details leaked back in August had Deathstroke as a minor villain and subsequent leaks have put Slade Wilson’s alter ego squarely in the Big Bad role. Now it seems that they may have shifted back to this original setup, which was as follows:

Current plot has Black Mask as the main villain breaking other villains out of Arkham to kill Batman. Joker and Harley have a subplot involving a bomb to blow up all the inmates once Batman recaptures them all that results in Harley leaving the Joker because of the abuse and Batman trying to rehabilitate her. Deathstroke is sent in by Waller to help contain the situation so she can use them for her own means but Batman fights Deathstroke and promises Waller that he’s coming for her next. Deadshot is also in it but leaves the Asylum to be with his daughter instead of getting his revenge on Batman. There’s a really cool scene where Black Mask lines all the villains up and asks who will join him to get revenge (this scene will focus a lot on Deadshot’s reactions, making it clear he wants only freedom). Many of the villains get away in the end, with Batman promising to hunt them all down. The film will end with Batman overlooking Gotham and seeing one of the B-List villains (has yet to be decided) committing a crime.

So, nothing concrete still. But there’s still a metric crap-ton of other rumours, and they are as follows:

In addition, two Batman animated films are also planned for 2019. One will be an adaptation of The Long Halloween… Grant Wilson might be the villain for the Nightwing solo film. He is hired by Roland Desmond to take out all the mob bosses in Blüdhaven… Suicide Squad 2 or Dark Universe will most likely be taking Aquaman’s previous release date. Mel Gibson is no longer the front runner to direct the Suicide Squad sequel. Jaume Collet-Serra and Ruben Fleischer are now the top candidates. The script is currently being written with a story pitch given by Ayer. Killer Frost will be the new female lead to replace Harley Quinn… The Dark Universe script is going through final rewrites. Guillermo Del Toro’s old treatment was used as a base and was rewritten to connect to the universe. If Liman is ready, filming could start as early as summer… Four movies are also planned for 2020. Warner Bros wants to do two low budget/smaller scale films and two big budget/larger scale films per year… Jonathan Levine is in talks to direct The Flash. The film will most likely release in 2020… Matthew Vaughn will most likely write the Man of Steel sequel if he takes on the directional duties.

Look. I can’t help but see all this as being like the Sony emails Wikileaks got hold of detailing all their bats-arse ideas for what to do with Spider-Man. Most of these are random pie-in-the-sky bits of info gleaned from who knows where, and the primary source being a message board where all the posting is anonymous does not lend any credence to the legitimacy of this information. It might be what’s churning round the minds of Warner Bros execs right now, but odds are it probably isn’t. Take it as you will.

Personally, I’m gonna go watch a double bill of Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker instead. Kevin Conroy is Batman. Fact.

Sources: Screen Rant; Screen Geek

Dave was born at an early age to parents of both sexes. He has been a self-confessed geek for as long as he can remember, having been raised through the 80s on a steady diet of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Red Dwarf and (sigh) Knight Rider. Throw the usual assortment of Saturday morning cartoons into the mix and we have something quite exceptional: someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of utter tosh; a love of giant robots and spaceships fighting; and the strange desire to leap tall buildings in a single bound while wearing his underpants over his trousers. The death ray is currently in the works and one day you shall all bow to him, his giant space station and fleet of funky orange space shuttles...