‘The Batman’ Moves to March 2022 After ‘Dune’ Delay, ‘The Matrix 4’ Lands Christmas 2021
Warner Bros. is moving Matt Reeves’ comic book tentpole “The Batman” to March 4, 2022. The release date change was widely expected after news broke earlier that the studio was delaying Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic “Dune” from December 18, 2020 to October 1, 2021. That October 2021 date was set for “The Batman” prior to its new move to March. Warner Bros. originally planned to open “The Batman” in theaters June 25, 2021, but the pandemic bumped the release at first to October.
Other Warner Bros. release date changes include “The Matrix 4” moving from April 1, 2022 to December 22, 2021, “The Flash” jumping from June 2022 to November 2022, and “Shazam! 2” delaying from November 2022 to June 2023. The upcoming Christmas release for “Wonder Woman 1984” remains for now.
“The Batman” stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. The movie’s first trailer proved a viral sensation in August and showed off footage that teased Reeves is operating in David Fincher murder mystery mode with this new Batman tentpole. The film takes place in Bruce Wayne’s second year of vigilantism, meaning “The Batman” will not be an origin story like Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins.”
“I wanted to do not an origin tale, but a tale that would still acknowledge his origins, in that it formed who he is,” Reeves previously told Nerdist about the project. “Like this guy, he’s majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle. But that doesn’t mean that he even fully understands, you know. It’s that whole idea of the shadow self and what’s driving you, and how much of that you can incorporate, and how much of it you’re doing that you’re unaware of.”
Production on “The Batman” in London has been suspended twice. The first time filming stopped was in March because of the industry-wide production shutdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. The second shutdown was caused after filming restarted in September and Pattinson tested positive for the coronavirus shortly before Labor Day weekend. Filming on “The Batman” is now underway.
Warner Bros. only has one major tentpole left on its 2020 release calendar with Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 1984.” The move of “Dune” to October 2021 forced “Batman” to move. The latest round of release date changes are listed below, courtesy of warner Bros.
– DUNE moves from 12/18/20 to 10/01/21
– The UNTITLED MATRIX FILM moves from 04/01/22 to 12/22/21
– THE BATMAN moves from 10/01/21 to03/04/22
– An UNTITLED WB EVENT FILM will be released 06/03/22
– An UNTITLED WB EVENT FILM will be released 08/05/22
– THE FLASH moves from 06/03/22 to11/04/22
– SHAZAM! 2 moves from 11/04/22 to06/02/23
– BLACK ADAM moves from 12/22/21 toUNDATED
– MINECRAFT moves from 03/04/22 toUNDATED
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