The Batman Part II: Release date, cast and latest sequel news

He also said that fans can expect the film to "dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie. It expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see."

Reeves has also said that the series is set to stick closely to his original plans for a trilogy, although admitted the idea for The Penguin came up later, and "shifted" things somewhat.

This doesn't mean there will be a marked change to the storyline for The Batman Part II, which is expected to be set just months after the first film, in December - with The Penguin filling the gap between the two.

Fans are also expecting Barry Keoghan's Joker to make an appearance, following his cameo in the first film, but Keoghan himself has said he "can't say much" about his ongoing role in the franchise.

Meanwhile, it seems Reeves feels more open to talk about the role of the Joker in the franchise, telling Digital Spy recently of their take on the character: "Barry is a wonderful actor. He's very, very special.

"One of the things that we talked a lot about was the idea, that his worldview is sort of formed by his being disfigured from birth. It was kind of like a cruel joke that life was playing on him, as well. His whole philosophy of life, and the laughing that he does in that kind of insidious, upsetting way, comes from the joke that has been played on him in his existence.

"This is who he is, so that's how he sees the world, so that's our point of entry into him. It's dealing with the themes that are Joker themes, but to try and find a different way in, a different point of entry. So that's something we talked a lot about when we're doing the scenes."

The Batman series is one of the only continuing DC projects which is not part of the universe being established by James Gunn and Peter Safran, with Gunn explaining in an official announcement in early 2023 that: "Matt is working on [The Batman Part II], which he thinks of as a Batman crime saga, which also includes the Penguin TV series.

"And it is its own thing and he's hard at work on that. He came in and pitched us some amazing, really cool stuff the other day. So our plan is for that to continue."

The Batman Part II is expected to see a host of cast members from the first film returning alongside Pattinson and Farrell, including Andy Serkis as Alfred and Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon.

But what else do we know about Reeves's plans for The Batman Part II. Be warned: spoilers for The Batman follow.

The Batman Part II release date

We still have a couple of years to wait, with the film now scheduled to be released in cinemas on Friday 2nd October 2026.

That's a year later than the initially planned release date of Friday 3rd October 2025, which is due to production delays caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023.

Warner Bros first officially announced there would be a Batman sequel at CinemaCon 2022.

"Matt took one of our most iconic and beloved superheroes and delivered a fresh vision," Warner Bros movie chief Toby Emmerich said during the panel. "Matt Reeves, Rob Pattinson and the entire team will be taking audiences back to Gotham with The Batman 2."

Reeves added: "I just want to echo what Toby said and thank you all for your tremendous support for The Batman. We could have gotten here without the faith, enthusiasm and hard work of everyone in this room and your amazing teams here around the world.

"Every part of this journey has been thrilling for me as a filmmaker and a huge fan of this character, and I'm excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter."

The title was confirmed on 31st January 2023 to be called The Batman Part II.

The Batman Part II cast and character speculation

Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz will be reprising their roles as billionaire socialite Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, and Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in The Batman Part II, it was confirmed at CinemaCon 2022.

Pattinson previously discussed his intentions for the trilogy in a 2021 interview with Empire, noting: "I’ve made a kind of map for where Bruce’s psychology would grow over two more movies. I would love to do it."

He also confirmed that if Warner Bros was to approach him about reprising his role once or twice more, he wouldn’t hesitate to say yes.

"I would love to do it," Pattinson said, as producer Dylan Clark added: "As the first stand-alone Batman in 10 years, the hope is we can lay a foundation that you can build stories upon."

There's also plenty of scope for more character development when it comes to Selina Kyle (Big Little Lies' Zoë Kravitz), who is clearly still developing her alter-ego of Catwoman in The Batman.

The same goes for detective James Gordon (Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright), who's only a lieutenant in The Batman rather than a Commissioner, as he's more widely known.

Sadly, John Turturro is unlikely to return as Falcone after he was shot and killed by antagonist The Riddler/Edward Nashton (Paul Dano), and the same goes for Peter Sarsgaard as the late DA Gil Colson.

However, we do know that Colin Farrell is expected to be back as Penguin, following his character's development in his own spin-off show.

Reeves told Variety in September 2024: "There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters that world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case."

It also seems possible that Dano could reprise his role as The Riddler, having told RadioTimes.com, when asked about potential sequels: "If I'm called back to Gotham, I'll be there."

Then, there's the question mark over Barry Keoghan's role as the Joker, after he was teased in a cameo scene at the end of the first film. Keoghan has remained tight-lipped about a potential appearance, but for our money it seems very likely he'll make at least another short appearance, perhaps teeing up a bigger role in a third film.

The Batman Part II plot speculation

Unsurprisingly, specific plot details are being kept under wraps for now, but Pattinson has shared which Batman villains he would like to see tackled next in the series.

"I’d love to do something like Court of Owls," the actor told Den of Geek, adding: "There are elements of The Batman which are kind of horror and I think it really feels quite new for Batman."

Pattinson has also mentioned the killer Calendar Man as a potential villain, as well as Mr Freeze.

Reeves recently told Collider that he wanted to do explore a more "grounded" take on Mr Freeze, explaining: "In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr Freeze, that is such a great story, right?

"I think there's actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great."

Asked around the time of the first film's release whether there were any specific comics he'd like to see adapted for a sequel, producer Dylan Clark was rather more vague.

"I think it's incumbent on us to create new stories that are true to the comics that people know and love," he told RadioTimes.com.

"So, you know, on this one, Robert read all the comics and there were certain things that we borrowed from multiple storylines.

"But really, Matt wanted to create a unique way into Batman and create a unique story. And then my hope is that people go, 'Oh, that's from Long Halloween, that's from Year One, is that a little bit of Killing Joke? And is that Arkham Asylum there?' Those things are important to us, but really for us we wanted to do our own story."

Clark also said the creative team "inevitably" had ideas about sequels, but remained relatively tight-lipped about what those ideas might be.

"Do we have ideas about the sequels? You just inevitably do, because you'll start to say, you know, wouldn't it be cool if... you know, what we haven't seen yet. And, you know, we didn't get enough of Alfred in this movie, or, you know, Gordon's gonna do this in his career.

"So, you know, with 80 years of Batman in the canon and all these great comics, there are multiple storylines that are just exciting."

Speaking to Variety in 2024, Reeves teased the plot of the film even more, saying it is "going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie. It expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see."

He continued: "Batman is constantly battling these forces. But those forces can’t be entirely exorcised. So the next movie delves deeper into that."

Is there a trailer for a sequel?

Hold your horses!

It's far too early for a trailer, but now that a sequel has been given the go-ahead, fans might not have too long to wait.

Watch this space!

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