Matt Reeves Expands The Batman Universe With The Epic Crime Saga
Entertainment|Movies
By Drew Bryant
July 29th, 2024, theloadoutblog.com
According to an interview conducted by Entertainment Weekly, Director Matt Reeves referred to the expanded Batman Universe as the Batman Epic Crime Saga.
In the interview with Entertainment Weekly, Director Matt Reeves and producing partner Dylan Clark discussed their plan to launch a universe of movies and TV shows that expand the story, characters, and lore around 2022’s The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson.
Their first endeavor is The Penguin, a TV show starring Colin Farrell, airing this September on HBO Max. The Penguin is set one week after the devastating events that left Gotham flooded, the Riddler jailed, and a power vacuum in the underworld that could plunge Gotham into chaos. This series leads directly into The Batman 2, which is expected to hit theaters in 2026.
The lead writer and showrunner, Lauren LeFranc, describes the show as “a Scarface story. It’s a rise-to-power story of Oz before he really makes it to the top,” according to Entertainment Weekly. She continues, “We’re in Oz’s world. We’re living in the underbelly of the city. Oz is a mover and a shaker. He can’t always be trusted. He’s very smart and very methodical, but he’s also extremely impulsive. You can’t predict what he’s going to do.”
Originally, Reeves and Clark set out to tell smaller, more impactful stories of the aftermath of the events in the movie. They initially sought to craft a spinoff series about Gotham PD and also experimented with an Arkham Asylum spinoff. Reeves recalls, as they were writing The Batman, thinking, “Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do. It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.”
The executives at HBO provided their guidance. “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters,’” Reeves recalled. While the two original concepts didn’t come together, many ideas from the Gotham PD show were incorporated into The Penguin.
The Batman HBO Max series originally discussed is on hold for the foreseeable future. It is unclear if we will see Batman in The Penguin series, but fans of the movie are hopeful. They will have to wait and see if Gotham’s Caped Crusader makes an appearance.
All this new content from Reeves and Clark is separate from the main DC universe that James Gunn is currently creating, following Warner Bros.’ move away from Zack Snyder’s DC Universe. This version of Batman will be part of the Elseworlds continuity of cinematic movies, which explores different stories and versions of iconic DC characters. Todd Phillips’ Joker movies are also part of the Elseworlds continuity.
We do not yet know what is in store for Reeves and Clark’s future spinoffs of the Epic Crime Saga after The Penguin TV show on HBO Max. Which characters or shows would you like to see explored in the future by Matt Reeves and Dylan Clark?
