DC Universe boss James Gunn defends delay of Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel

DC Studios boss James Gunn has addressed the recent news that Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part 2, starring Robert Pattinson, had been delayed until 2027.

The delay comes amid record-high anticipation from fans following the success of its Colin Farrell-led spinoff series, The Penguin.

Its new release date sparked fans to focus on the fact that there will now be a five-year gap between the first instalment, released in 2022.

Despite the five-year gap between releases, Gunn took to Meta social app Threads to defend the sequel’s latest delay.

“To be fair, a 5-year gap or more is fairly common in sequels,” Gunn wrote on Threads in an attempt to lower worries amongst the DC Universe fandom.

The Guardians of the Galaxy director went on to compare past successful franchises that have seen similar gaps between its sequels.

“7 years between Alien and Aliens,” he began.

He continued: “14 years between Incredibles.”

“7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns,” he added.

“And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol 2 and Vol 3.”

Although The Batman Part 2 was previously announced to not be a part of Gunn’s DC Universe, Reeves recently sparked talks of a potential reconsideration.

“It really comes down to whether or not it makes sense,” Reeves said on the matter, confirming that there may be a chance.

“What’s been great is there is a story that I wanted to tell we’re calling the Epic Crime Saga, which is the thrust of what we want to do.”

“It’s been important to me to be able to play that out,” he added.

“James and Peter have been really, really great about that, they’re letting us do that.”

“What the future brings, I can’t really tell you”

“I have no idea right now, except that my head is down, now, about getting The Batman Part 2 shooting and to make it something really, really special, which, of course, is the most important thing.”

In response to Gunn’s update, majority of fans agreed with the decision.

“Rushing sequels is worse than getting them correct,” one wrote in agreeance.

“t’s not like people are gonna forget who Batman is between now and 2027,” another added.

However, some fans took to the comment section to argue that Gunn’s examples of past franchises having similar gaps between sequels may not be all that common.

“Alien and Aliens were disconnected projects,” one wrote.

“Incredibles was initially a one off that they returned to.”

“Terminators were disconnected. Avatars were due to technology development and writing multiple scripts to film multiple movies.”

“Top Guns were disconnected. And Guardians was part of a larger slate where multiple films had to happen before GOTG3 could come out.

“The Batman was obviously pitched as a multi-film project,” they concluded.