Holy sequel surge, Batman! In 2019, the character of Batman will celebrate his 80th anniversary, and Warner Bros. could have an impressive celebration lined up: six separate films in the Batman universe might be released during that calendar year.
According to a new rumor from Reddit (via ScreenRant), WB has its sights set on making 2019 a year Batman fans will never forget. They’ll supposedly start with the female-led Harley Quinn-centric spinoff Gotham City Sirens on Valentine’s Day, drop their live-action Nightwing movie on Memorial Day, release Joss Whedon’s Batgirl film sometime in August, and close out the year in November with The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes).
That’s a lot of Batman-related content for one year, but that’s not all. There are also two animated Batman movies reportedly planned for that year, including a film adaptation of the iconic limited series Batman: The Long Halloween. Since that’s one of the most beloved comic runs in the character’s history, fans will probably flip out if they get to see an animated Long Halloween movie.
Considering how important Batman is to Warner Bros., it would not surprise me in the slightest if they were prepping all of these projects to celebrate his 80th anniversary with a bang. (They went all-out during his 75th anniversary by devoting a section of their Hollywood studio tour to props and vehicles from past Batman films.) Whether or not the filmmakers responsible for these individual movies are willing or able to adhere to this timetable is a different story, but as long as everyone feels like they have enough time to make the best Batman (or Batman-adjacent) project they can make and still hit these dates, 2019 would be an epic year for Bat-fans.
Also worth noting: the same report has an update with some details these projects. They claim Deathstroke will be in The Batman, but not as the main villain because “Matt Reeves wants to do a larger scale Batman film that will include the Bat family as well as most of Batman’s rogues.” Interesting...
They also say Grant Wilson will be the villain in the Nightwing movie, Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) and Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) are the current frontrunners to direct Suicide Squad 2, Jonathan Levine (50/50) is in talks to direct The Flash for a 2020 release. That’s a lot to take in, but keep in mind that none of this is official yet. While we wait for confirmation from the studio, though, I’d love to hear what you all think about these updates. Do you think 2019 will be the Year of the Bat?
Images: Warner Bros.
