It might be a bit before fans see Robert Pattinson’s The Batman return to theaters. According to Deadline, the sequel to Matt Reeves’ The Batman and the follow-up series The Penguin will be delayed until 2027. The film was originally slated for release in October 2026, with the year delay the longest of the recent shakeups in Hollywood.
Deadline adds that Warner had always had the 2027 weekend set aside for a DC Comics release. Current DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO defended the delay on social media.
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“To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels,” he wrote on Threads. “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.”
As it stands, fans should likely be happy the movie is going to come out at all, given the track record from Warner in recent memory. But Gunn made clear the main reason for the delay wasn’t a major hurdle.
“Sure. Yes, it is true. The only reason for the delay is there isn’t a full script (those of you who follow me here probably know that already). Matt 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 pre-production, shooting and post-production on big films,” Gunn added.
In the 2026 spot vacated by The Batman II, Tom Cruise’s upcoming collaboration with Alejandro González Iñárritu will fill right in. Both The Batman and The Penguin have been great successes for DC Studios in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film would earn $369 million domestically and $772 million worldwide, while the Max series was the third-most-watched premiere on the network internationally.
