Nearly four years after DC Studios announced its DCU slate, The Brave and the Bold appears no closer to becoming a reality. Understandably, that's led to speculation that Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight will be folded into the same world as Superman and Lanterns.
The latter series arguably proves that Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise could be retroactively added to the DCU, and James Gunn has gone back and forth on the possibility in interviews. Reeves seems less keen, and now Pattinson himself has shut it down.
After all, it's pretty difficult to imagine this version of Batman fighting alongside characters like Superman, Guy Gardner, and Lobo. In fact, it's the difference in tone that's proving the biggest sticking point for Pattinson.
Asked by LADbible what sort of impact his Batman would have on the DCU—which includes his Primetime co-star Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen—the actor replied that he'd "make the other characters more serious."
Adding that it's an "interesting" possibility, Pattinson said, "I think it would be kind of tough to have this version of Bruce outside of that world. It's one of the only characters, I guess, because of the length of the shoots, but also it's such a specific kind of [style], the tone of it gets inside you."
"I remember that happened to me the last time I did it, it took a while. You’re just in the dark, the whole time. Both mood-wise and light-wise, I can't see anything for like months," he continued. "It does affect you like you feel strange afterwards."
Pattinson later pointed out, "It’s so funny, because Gotham is Watford. It’s a shed in Watford. There’s something so destabilising about when you're just, you're in the dark the whole time. mean just for eight months in the dark and you literally have no conception of being connected to anything in the world. [It's] difficult to even maintain your sanity."
The door appears well and truly closed on the idea that this version of Batman might somehow be added to the DCU. The actor clearly doesn't believe his version of the hero would fit into Gunn's vision for the DC Universe and likely wouldn't want to make a decade-plus commitment of appearing in multiple DC movies and TV shows.
What does this mean for The Brave and the Bold? Well, the DCU's Batman movie remains in active development—we think—with Christina Hodson writing the script for The Flash director Andy Muschietti.
Directed by Matt Reeves from a script by him and Mattson Tomlin, The Batman Part II stars Robert Pattinson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright, Charles Dance, Jayme Lawson, Gil Perez-Abraham, Sebastian Koch, and Brian Tyree Henry.
The Batman Part II is set to be released in theaters on February 18, 2028.