‘Batman’ retools with new script
The Washington Post Batman begins again. Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are going back to the drawing board with their next solo Batman movie.
“The Batman” director Matt Reeves confirmed to MTV’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he and WB/DC will not use the script developed by Ben Affleck, Geoff Johns and Chris Terrio and will instead start over.
The Hollywood Reporter credited Batman-News with the assist in pointing out the informative bat-tidbit.
The restart on a Batman movie script perhaps indicates what initially caused delays in Mr. Reeves signing on to be “The Batman’s” director. He could have wanted to assure he had a part in molding the movies’ plot and didn’t want to walk into directing a movie that was already written.
The confirmation of a new script puts into question whether Joe Manganiello will still be a part of the movie as the main antagonist, Deathstroke. Mr. Affleck hinted on social media last August that Deathstroke would be Batman’s main foe in his first solo Batman movie.
A battle against Deathstroke seemed at odds with all the Batman bits that have been seen in WB/DC’s current cinematic universe.
For one, why establish Robin/Jason Todd was killed by the Joker in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Suicide Squad” if you’re not going to pit the Joker and Batman against each other in a future Bat-flick?
And why show a dead Robin’s suit hanging in the batcave in memoriam if you’re not considering adapting the “Red Hood” story line that saw Jason Todd come back from the dead to haunt Batman and the Joker as a lethal, masked vigilante?
It seems more likely that Jared Leto’s Joker would return in David Ayer’s Harley Quinn/Margot Robbie-led “Gotham City Sirens” before he would show up in a new Batman movie.
One idea is for all the Robins to appear, including Dick Grayson (now Nightwing), Jason Todd (now the Red Hood), Tim Drake (now Red Robin) and Batman’s son conceived with Talia, the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, current Robin Damian Wayne.
Embracing the Robins would be a way for the next solo Batman films to stand out from Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” trilogy (which only hinted at Robin). A Red Hood theme would also give Mr. Reeves a chance to put more of a detective-like Batman on screen if Batman was investigating the identity of the Red Hood like he did in the comics.
Of course, none of this could happen. Perhaps Mr. Manganiello’s Deathstroke is still on the table as the main villain. Maybe Mr. Reeves has no interest in Mr. Leto’s Joker or the many Robins and will leave the branch of Batman’s sidekicks to be explored in the soon-to-be-developed Nightwing movie.
But Mr. Reeves saw something that he felt wasn’t right and felt it better to start over. That should let Batman movie fans know they’ve got a director that cares about getting right the one thing that matters most: the story.