James Gunn Officially Confirms First Details on Robert Pattinson's Batman Replacement

It took some time after he was first announced as the new head of DC Studios back in 2022, but James Gunn‘s DCU is now off and running with multiple movies and shows to establish a new cinematic universe on the big and small screen. Things look a bit different now than they did when Gunn first announced a new slate of projects, and some are further along in development than expected, while others look like they may not see the light of day. The DCU’s latest outing is Clayface, the new horror movie starring Tom Rhys Harries as the titular character that was written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini and directed by James Watkins. The movie is set in Gotham City, home of Batman in most DC stories.

One of the first projects Gunn announced years ago was Batman: Brave and the Bold, which was to be directed by Andy Muschietti. The movie is still without a release date, but after fans demanded an update since The Dark Knight was nowhere to be seen in Clayface, Gunn was forced to address the status of his Batman in the DCU. During a recent sit-down on the Suicide Squad podcast, Gunn was speaking to his larger casting philosophy, and he confirmed that “it won’t be too much longer before we’re casting Batman.” Gunn even confirmed that he’s “not cast yet,” despite the rumors floating around to the contrary.

Gunn continued, “When we do cast the DCU Batman, which isn’t far away… If I gave somebody a day role in Suicide Squad who is going to be the best Batman, I’m not going to rule him out from that.” Gunn promises that he’s going to “take everyone into account,” and that one of the things that excites him the most about Batman is “picking the best actor for that role.” He says that he’s moving away from the formula where Batman is always cast by finding the biggest movie star, and treating him more like Superman, where he’ll be finding the perfect fit for the role.

Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.

You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.

• The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
  reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.
• You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
  real entry requirement here.
• The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
  usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.
• When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.

You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.

• This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
  wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.
• You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
  not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.
• The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
  to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.
• You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.

You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.

• Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
  villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.
• You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
  which is far less lonely than being the only one.
• The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
  honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.
• The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.

You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.

• The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
  patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.
• You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
  not to mention.
• This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
  people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.
• You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.

When Does The Next DCU Movie Come Out?

• Image via DC Studios

• Image via HBO

• Image via Warner Bros.

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via DC

• Image via DC Studios

• Image via HBO

• Image via Warner Bros.

• Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

• Image via DC

Now that Clayface is playing in theaters around the world, the next DCU movie on the slate is Man of Tomorrow, which is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 9, 2027. The film is a direct sequel to 2025’s Superman, but it also features characters like Milly Alcock‘s Supergirl and Aaron Pierre‘s John Stewart from Lanterns. The primary plot of the movie will see Superman (played by David Corenswet) and Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult) team up to take down Brainiac, who will be played by Lars Eidinger.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of future DCU movies like Man of Tomorrow and Batman: Brave and the Bold.

The Batman

In a dark city plagued by crime and corruption, a masked crusader investigates a puzzling string of crimes linked by cryptic messages. His journey into the depths of the city’s sinister underworld reveals connections among its most powerful citizens and forces him to confront his own complex relationship with justice.