James Gunn, the co-chief of DC Studios, is defending the delay of The Batman sequel to 2027.
Warner Bros. announced on Friday that the release date for Matt Reeves‘ follow-up to 2022’s The Batman would be pushed to Oct. 1, 2027, which led some fans to share their disappointment on social media. But Gunn attempted to calm their worries, noting that large gaps between movies are “fairly common.”
“To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels,” Gunn wrote on Threads. “7 years between Alien and Aliens. 14 years between Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol 2 and Vol 3.”
The Batman sequel is expected to go into production in the third quarter of 2025 as Reeves is still working on the script. While the film is not part of the DC universe being built by Gunn and his DC partner Peter Safran, the duo is helping to oversee the project.
“Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write,” the Superman director shared on Friday. “Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for pre-production, shooting and post-production on big films.”
The Batman sequel, which is currently untitled (it was previously called The Batman: Part II), will see Robert Pattinson return to the titular role. The first film was a critical and box office success, grossing more than $772 million worldwide.
