DC Studios co-chair James Gunn told followers on Threads that director Matt Reeves has turned in a completed draft of The Batman Part II and that the screenplay “reads great” after his first pass on a flight from Los Angeles to New York. The update ends months of online speculation that the project was struggling to meet internal deadlines after two earlier release-date shifts.
Reeves and co-writer Mattson Tomlin finished polishing the script in late June, three years after principal writing began, and shared a photo of the title page stamped “June 24 2025 – Final.” The sequel, headlined again by Robert Pattinson, is set for 2 October 2026 following a studio decision to vacate its original 2025 slot during last year’s strikes. Production listings circulated in the U.K. trade press point to a spring-2025 shoot at Warner Bros. Leavesden, giving Reeves roughly nine months of post-production before test screenings.
Gunn said he expects to read “two different Batman scripts” before year’s end—Reeves’ Elseworlds installment and the DCU-canon Brave and the Bold—underscoring his policy that no project advances without a finished screenplay. He also confirmed the Reeves films will remain outside the main continuity, describing them as a “crime saga” that complements but does not overlap the forthcoming shared universe.
Plot details remain sealed, yet industry chatter points to Reeves exploring Gotham’s political vacuum after the Riddler-induced flood, with villains such as Hush or the Court of Owls reportedly in early concept art. HBO Max spin-off The Penguin, now in post-production, is expected to bridge narrative time between the two films and feed directly into Pattinson’s next outing. As excitement builds, Gunn’s public nod to the script’s quality has reassured exhibitors who regard the 2026 date as a key anchor in Warner Bros.’ theatrical slate.
