Why Robert Pattinson’s Batman Should Be DCU’s Caped Crusader

Does DC Studios really need two live-action Batmen?

The short answer is no. Having two Batmen running concurrently will likely undercut each other — and their box office. It’s important to note that while Matt Reeves’ The Batman was a critical and commercial success, his first film in Robert Pattinson’s run as the Caped Crusader did not hit the coveted $1 billion mark, that a franchise this popular is expected to hit.

Two Batman films Dilute Box Office

Time will tell if the sequel brings in numbers close to that or exceeds the box office of the first film. It has been done before. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight exceeded the box office of Batman Begins and the coveted $1 billion mark in a time when billion-dollar entries were considered exceptional rather than an increasingly normal mark of a franchise’s success. Also, The Dark Knight was released just three years after Batman Begins. The Batman Part II by contrast will release seven to eight years after the original. The original premise of The Batman — showing Batman in his first year as the Caped Crusader — has long past. Pattinson, himself now forty, can no longer play the fledgling Bat. Instead he’s now a Batman with a history.

DCU’s Batman Is Already An Established Hero

This fits with the proposed introduction of the DCU Batman. He’s getting no origin story. We won’t see him with Robin 1, 2, or 3. The story will instead be a loose adaptation of Batman: Bold and the Brave featuring his biological son, Damian Wayne, as Robin. Robin number one, Dick Grayson, will already be established as Nightwing, and the likes of Robin-turned-villain, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake, will have already done their time as Batman’s sidekicks and have solo careers of their own. Nor is this iteration of DCU’s Batman expected to be too old. He is old enough to have a teenage son and young enough to still fight crime. Pattinson’s Bat is the near perfect age, certainly once he finishes The Batman Part II and, if he was to become the DCU Batman, would begin production on a Bold and the Brave film as his third Batman film, he would be old enough for this shared history with two to three other Robins to have legitimately taken place between films.

Reeves’ Batman Is Not Tonally Inconsistent With DCU’s Batman

It just does not make much sense to keep him outside the DCU. Yes, Reeves’ wants them separate. Yes, Pattinson says his Batman is tonally inconsistent with James Gunn’s DCU. And yes, Gunn says he respects Reeves’ decision. But Reeves himself has personal and rumoured health problems that have halted the production of Batman Part II, making the continual delays to directing this trilogy untenable for the future of Batman in the DCU.

As for Pattinson’s remark. The DCU has already proven it won’t stick to one even tone across all its properties. While critics consider this a problem, it is actually in line with the comics themselves. Batman often operates in darker storylines than the rest of the justice Leage, but when they team up as the Justice League, the storylines will often be lighter to accommodate other characters.

Lanterns proves a show can be darker, turning the clear-cut good versus evil of the Green Lantern comics into something more morally ambiguous and still be related directly with the colourful, light-hearted Superman film. The soon-to-be-released Clayface will lean into horror — specifically body horror — making it aligned more with Reeves’ darker Gotham universe than the glossy comic book rendition of Gunn’s Superman. Clayface, a B-team Batman villain, takes place in Gotham, though, as reported, the Caped Crusader will be nowhere in sight. The Penguin, Lanterns and Clayface all sit next to each other tonally, yet only The Penguin is outside the DCU and part of Reeves’ Bat universe.

The DCU Has a Batman-Shaped Hole

The big issue is Batman’s absence from the DCU becomes more glaring as more films and television series come and go. Gunn is explicit that the DCU takes place in a universe already featuring established superheroes. Instead of introducing a new Batman, just fold the existing one you have into the DCU and be done with it.

When you have great characters like Colin Farrell’s Penguin, Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman and Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone established in Gotham, retreading a new Gotham City with new version of those characters and related characters a pointless exercise. Damian Wayne, a dark iteration of Robin, whose mother is none other than Ra’s Al Ghul’s daughter, Talia, already fits the tone of Reeves’ Gotham. Depending on casting, the samurai-wielding son who toys with killing his own father, fits well in a world populated by Farrell, Kravitz and Milioti. Folding Reeves’ Gotham City into the DCU immediately expands the scope giving Kravitz’s Catwoman more to do. The proposed DCU Bat Family film, featuring Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, would have a pre-established Catwoman, Falcone crime family and Penguin to deal with.

Do we really need two Gotham Cities explored in adjacent universes? Probably not.

Lanterns itself set up a backstory for Rushville Sheriff Kelly Kane. She fled Gotham City, hunted by two thugs from a Gotham crime family, only to be saved by Manhunter Zoe Macon. Kane’s death is faked, and she reinvents herself as sheriff of Rushville. Lanterns ‘writers have already proposed the idea of exploring her past in Gotham. And long time comic readers have already noted that Kelly’s last name Kane carries significant Gotham City baggage. Either she is related to Batwoman Kathy Kane or to two villains bearing the same surname. The KK alliteration in both Kelly and Kathy’s names seem to be comic book significant. And if related, that means Sheriff Kelly Kane would be related to Batman through his mother Martha Wayne, born Martha Kane.

But considering Lanterns has already established she was running from her criminal father’s past; we can assume she is likely related to either Montague Kane, a thief on Batman: The Animated Series or Jacob Kane, who runs the Court of Owls in the Gotham Knights comic lineage.

The latter is significant. The Court of Owls runs Gotham from behind the scenes as a secret society, with the city’s rich and powerful as members. And it is a storyline that Reeves himself would like to incorporate into his universe. Rather than flesh out an unrelated Gotham story for Kelly Kane’s family, the idea, if it ever makes it into development, would be best folded into a united DCU-Reeves’ shared universe.

So much of what both universes are doing overlaps. And it just does not make sense to keep them separate, especially when the DCU itself is already set in an established universe. Reeves has already heavy lifting for Gotham and its heroes and villains, a perfect environment in which to expand the DCU without ruining what Reeves has achieved.