A day after it was officially announced that The Batman Part II had been delayed, James Gunn revealed the reason behind the decision which has angered the fans. The DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO said the script for the sequel to the highly-acclaimed movie was yet to be completed which prompted the executives to take the call of pushing back the film by a year to 2027 from its initial release date.
"The only reason for the delay is there isn't a full script," wrote Gunn on his Threads account.
"[Director] Matt [Reeves] is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write. Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for preproduction, shooting, and post-production on big films."
Gunn further defended the long gap between the two movies by citing his own filmography and stating that such big-budget superhero movies had a lengthy production and post-production schedule.
"To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels. 7 years between Alien and Aliens. 14 years between Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol 2 and Vol 3."
Notably, The Batman Part II will now be premiering on October 1, 2027, with production on the movie slated to begin in the summer of next year. However, with the script yet to be finalised, it might be a race against time for Gunn and his team to get the production on schedule.
VFX-heavy movie
A Deadline report previously claimed that the second installment will be VFX-heavy which means a considerable amount of time will be spent during the post-production process. However, if the script is not aced by Reeves, the release could further be delayed if reshoots are ordered, as has been the case with most DC offerings lately.
Warner Bros is expected to slot in Alejandro G. Inarritu and Tom Cruise's upcoming film in the vacant spot left by Batman's sequel. The unnamed movie will be released in IMAX on October 2, 2025.
As per Reeves, the work on the script for the second film in a planned trilogy has been 'slow'.
"We're finishing the script. We're going to be shooting next year," Reeves said in a recent Directors on Directors conversation with Variety.
Alongside Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell's Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka The Penguin will be featuring in the sequel with no confirmation regarding Zoe Kravitz's return as Catwoman provided by the studio.
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