A sequel to The Batman has basically been a foregone conclusion since its critically and commercially successful release, and the next installment in the series is beginning to take shape. First Robert Pattison was confirmed in April, then came the return of Matt Reeves, and now the director officially has his co-writer in Mattson Tomlin, an uncredited contributor to this reboot’s first installment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Plot details are scant, though it’s possible that Barry Keoghan’s Joker could be one of the central antagonists in the Batman sequel. Colin Farrell, who plays the Penguin, is bringing the bombastic villain to HBO Max as a TV series, and has expressed significant interest in reprising the role in the sequel film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tomlin was helped finish The Batman’s’s third act. The screenwriter has had a prolific last few years, writing the action film Project Power, the sci-fi drama Little Fish, and the post-apocalyptic thriller Mother/Android, which he also directed. (Reeves produced the latter, which is apparently how the two got to know each other.) His most germane credit is writing last year’s Batman: The Impostor, a three-issue comic miniseries that shares stylistic and thematic ideas with The Batman, but put towards a different story.
Given that The Batman made more than $770 million worldwide, a sequel was never really in jeopardy, but fans will surely be comforted with this official confirmation of forward momentum after the widely-covered shakeups at the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery. The news of Tomlin joining the fold comes the day after the directors of the scrapped Batgirl film told a French outlet they were not allowed to access the footage they’d shot once the film’s release was canceled.
“It cannot be released in its current state,” Adil El Arbi said, per a translation in Variety. “There’s no VFX … We still had some scenes to shoot. So if one day they want us to release the ‘Batgirl’ movie, they’d have to give us the means to do it. To finish it properly with our vision.”
Reeves recently signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, but he hasn’t been free from the tumult that has enveloped the company. His Batman: Caped Crusader TV show has been canceled by HBO Max, per Variety, as part of a move away from children’s content.