This is an archive of Batman-News.com from 2010 to 2025. For the latest news, check out BatmanNews.com

15 Years of Coverage (2010-2025)

Batman News Archive

Matt Reeves on 'The Batman': "It's a standalone, this isn't part of the extended universe"

By

Chris Begley

·

on Matt Reeves on 'The Batman': "It's a standalone, this isn't part of the extended universe"

A couple of days before Comic-Con last month, The Batman director Matt Reeves was on "The Business" podcast hosted by The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters. Reeves spoke about his position on making the movie, and had an interesting comment about how it was pitched to him by Warner Bros.

"When they approached me, what they said was: 'look, it’s a standalone, this isn't part of the extended universe," Reeves said. He also confirmed that he has an idea for a trilogy in his head. Reeves said he's "totally fine" not making a Batman movie if Warner Bros. doesn't want to make the movie that he wants to make. So far, though, he said he and WB have been on the same page. You can listen to The Batman talk around the 23:39 mark below.

Reeves comments about The Batman not being part of an extended universe are interesting. Yesterday, we learned that Warner Bros. will be launching a new brand of DC Comics movies that will be separate from their current DC Extended Universe. Right now they're working on a Joker movie that won't star Jared Leto.

One last thing that I think is at least worth mentioning is this: The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters interviewed Matt Reeves for this podcast on July 17th. On July 21st she published the article about Ben Affleck's Batman future coming to end soon. Make of that what you will, but it's certainly interesting timing.

What do you make of Matt Reeves comments about The Batman? Let me know in the comments section below.

SOURCE: The Business (via reddit)

This is an archive of Batman-News.com from 2010 to 2025. For the latest news, check out BatmanNews.com

Comments (440)

Leave a comment

Join the conversation

A free account lets you comment, like comments, and get an alert when someone replies to you.

Continue with Disqus

or

Sign Up Now
  1. K_Man399 Avatar
    K_Man399

    Thinking they are just not going to make any world building clips or references and cameos but it's still set in DCEU. Otherwise wtf wb...

  2. UltimateEdition Avatar
    UltimateEdition

    I don't get it... anything not having connective tissue is not part of the DCEU now? I'd say Ben affleck as Batman is a pretty big piece of connective tissue.... stop saying it's not part of the DCEU it makes no fucking sense.

  3. Bob Burger Avatar
    Bob Burger

    Once again....how I feel....

    https://media.giphy.com/med...
    https://33.media.tumblr.com...

    My soul right now reflects my expression

    http://akns-images.eonline....

  4. Remy Wong Avatar
    Remy Wong

    I think whoever started this rumor misheard the interview between Matt Reeves and Kim Masters. I've listened to the actual interview and this is what I heard.

    Reeves: "When they (Warner Bros.) approached me, what they (Warner Bros.) said was 'look, it's a standalone, it's NOT LIKE this isn't part of the extended universe."

    Masters: "They're not saying it's a trilogy either."

    Reeves: "Yeah, they're not saying any of it."

    I could be wrong, but I've listened to this part of the interview over and over again, through my headphones and speakers, and that's what Matt Reeves said.

    Here's the link of the interview. Matt Reeves and Kim Masters began talking about Batman at the 24 minutes and 11 seconds mark. The part about this rumor is at the 26 minutes and 35 seconds mark.

    1. Axxell Avatar
      Axxell

      That doesn't make sense in english...

  5. Sisyphus Avatar
    Sisyphus

    What is going on at WB?? Joker gets his independent movie, Jared Leto gets his independent movie, Batman is independent from the current DCEU. So will Ben be in Jared Leto's movie? Will those independent Batman and Joker movies be linked? What happens to the rest of the Justice League? What is happening with Suicide Squad 2?? This has really gone to shit.

  6. Axxell Avatar
    Axxell

    Mh.

  7. Cary David Hoffson Avatar
    Cary David Hoffson

    I hope justice league movie will make everyone happy with the movie and changing minds of D.C. comics movies like wonder woman movie did and keep it going with Ben Affleck has Batman

  8. Abkinxoc Avatar
    Abkinxoc

    It's okay dc. Milk batman dry and don't bother focusing on making a coherent cinematic universe. Maybe if i tell dc the opposite of what i think they should do they will start listening.
    What an absolute 50 clown car pileup train wreck with clown shoes flying and clown horns honking across the road.

  9. Axxell Avatar
    Axxell

    Manganiello can't act.

  10. Michael Joseph Avatar
    Michael Joseph

    WTF

    I like DC better than Marvel, but I must admit that I like how Marvel shared universe on all movies and TV

  11. Boulder Bash Avatar
    Boulder Bash

    I'm sad but can't help be curious about it

  12. Shah Avatar
    Shah

    Guess there won't be any cameos.

  13. Joe K. Avatar
    Joe K.

    A Shared universe is not the only way to tell stories. It's actually kind of takes away the shock of a movie. Look above and you'll see iron man alive and well with pepper and happy.. guess they all lived in IW. And the trailer for IW basically starts with how Thor 3 probably ends. Let's see what happens before we all get nuts and lose faith in JL and Batman.

    1. Phunny Guy Avatar
      Phunny Guy

      The WB needs to put Reeves on a short leash. Ever time he talks, he runs the DCEU to the ground. All this stand alone BS and doing it my way cause I'm Matt mother f"""n Reeves is going to alienate all the DCEU fans. If the WB and Reevey, doesn't want the fan base to get ticked off then stop going off script and bring down that ego a whole lot. The WB needs to control their "independent" lap dog, Reevey. He has been bad news so since day one.

      1. Abkinxoc Avatar
        Abkinxoc

        marvel had the same problem with edgar wright. So glad they told him to take a hike after all the damage he tried to do to the mcu. If it wasn't for him wasp and ant man would be avenger founders.

  14. Brandon J. Hall Avatar
    Brandon J. Hall

    What people are missing is that this is no different than what was done with Wonder Woman. It was a complete standalone that only acknowledged that there was a Bruce Wayne in the world through a post card. It did nothing to set up Justice League or other superhero films. Yet it was still a part of the DCEU. This is no different. It will be a Batman movie unencumbered by components that would stray from the main objective of the story for the sake of setting up the arrival of Darkseid for the next Justice League film.

    1. Abkinxoc Avatar
      Abkinxoc

      There is a big difference from a standalone not being connected to other films and a standalone not being connected to the cinematic universe. Theres a big difference between MOS and superman returns.

      1. Brandon J. Hall Avatar
        Brandon J. Hall

        And yet we have other factors that surround the film. Ben Affleck is Batman. It's attached to the current DCEU slate. The movie was pitched to the director as a standalone (something we've already known).

        I understand the difference in terms. I can also read between The lines enough not to hang on every word

  15. BatfleckRules Avatar
    BatfleckRules

    As someone that found Affleck's Batman to be how I always envisioned the "true Batman" i'm just worried that Matt Reeve's version will be too different and won't speak to me.

    Sounds like they want to go back to the uber realistic, boring Nolan style Batman.

    The Joker movie is going to be some realistic crime film, so it's safe bet WB want to take their Batman franchise in that direction again since Nolan's Batman movies made a billion dollars.

    Whelp, this sucks.

    1. Kerk Lastnameless Avatar
      Kerk Lastnameless

      You envisioned the true Batman as a merciless murderer? You're not from my sandbox.

      1. Phunny Guy Avatar
        Phunny Guy

        No it should be deeply emotional like "Bat together strong!" I guess you'll go Ape sh""t for that right. Last I checked, that movie didn't make any cash. It's a snooze fest at most. Why put your faith in a director like that. We want a Batman movie not a drama Emo bat bringing a tear to the fans. WB ate this crappy idea up? Reeves should be directing Gone with the wind not a DCEU movie. Sounds like another Bryan Singer hot mess. Time for Reeves to go!!!

        1. Kerk Lastnameless Avatar
          Kerk Lastnameless

          Your grammar is atrocious, and honestly I got no clue what you're saying.

          1. Phunny Guy Avatar
            Phunny Guyreplying to Kerk Lastnameless

            If you don't know what I'm talking about then you must be on the wrong website. Don't claim to be a Batman fan when you don't have clue. You do know who Batman is right? It's not the Man-Bat.

          2. Kerk Lastnameless Avatar
            Kerk Lastnamelessreplying to Phunny Guy

            Ok, that's a better grammar. So you DO know how to write. Still have no clue what you're saying tho.

          3. Phunny Guy Avatar
            Phunny Guyreplying to Kerk Lastnameless

            Did you say something? I can't read you? What was that??

          4. Kerk Lastnameless Avatar
            Kerk Lastnamelessreplying to Phunny Guy

            What part of "Жуй Хуй" did you not get?

          5. Phunny Guy Avatar
            Phunny Guyreplying to Kerk Lastnameless

            Well why don't you "bua kuv tus qau!!" Noj kuv cov lus, ntsej muag ruam.

  16. BatfleckRules Avatar
    BatfleckRules

    What sucks the most though, is that the more and more of this stuff I hear, the more and more my excitement for Justice League dissipates. Justice League is now starting to feel like the end of the party rather than the start of the party. Less of a celebration and more of a "well, let's just wrap this shit show up". It's amazing how much all this news has killed my buzz.

    And it also kind of seems to hint that Justice League might suck because if WB are making these big plans to go in another direction, it shows they have little faith in Justice League after they'd seen what Zack created. Would also explain why they hired Whedon to come in and try and remake the movie.

    It's a mess, let's face it. The DCEU failed even though Wonder Woman succeeded it's just not enough to save the sinking ship. As much as I think people blew how bad Zack's DCEU movies were out of proportion, I don't think he was the right guy to helm Justice League.

    If he struggled with just two superheroes, there's no way he could handle the entire Justice League. For a movie with so many big characters/personalities you definitely need a director that understands character development.

  17. Kerk Lastnameless Avatar
    Kerk Lastnameless

    Does anyone still remember how there was a Superman Red Son movie in the talks a little while ago? It all really seems to fall in line now -- They've concluded that they can't do a cinematic universe, gave up, and decided to compete with Marvel via stand-alones.

    2017 RIP DCEU.

  18. BatfleckRules Avatar
    BatfleckRules

    I'm really not sure I like this Matt Reeves guy. Everytime I see an article with him, it's something that ends up pissing me off.

    It doesn't sit well with me that he seems so ok to come in and just start sticking up his middle finger at all of the DCEU fans. Especially after the success of Wonder Woman. To come in and demand to create an entirely new Batman from scratch to apparently render the current on obsolete just seems extremely ballsy, selfish, and egotistical.

    I'm now starting to wonder whether it was actually Affleck that wanted out, or whether it was this asshole coming in and whispering in WB's ears that he can guarantee to make Batman a billion dollar franchise again if they give him the keys to the Batmobile.

  19. Bob Burger Avatar
    Bob Burger

    Sooo is Batfleck out of the picture? Batfleck in a Batman movie that is not part of the DCEU doesn't seem right.

  20. CloakedSparrow Avatar
    CloakedSparrow

    "But how the hell do you have multiple versions of your characters in active cinematic continuity at the same time?"

    They do this in comics without any trouble. Why should the films be any different? If they release an Elseworlds story, no one (or very few) mistakes it for the main universe continuity. In film it might actually be easier because they'd have different actors, cinematographers, etc.

  21. Knight-Errant Avatar
    Knight-Errant

    So, we don't want plotpoints for other movies in the actual movie, but now we shouldn't have post-credit scenes that set up other movies either?

    Got it.

    Why the fuck have a shared universe?

  22. BatfleckRules Avatar
    BatfleckRules

    Oh great here we go.

    What the fuck are they thinking?!??!?!?! It looks like they're finally going to start hitting their stride and WB decides to pull the rug out from under Affleck's Batman and start new?

    It was one thing to go right from Nolan's trilogy to a reboot because Nolan's trilogy was WRAPPED UP with a nice little bow. But now they're going to start right over after JUST introducing Affleck's Batman??
    What a horrible idea... this isn't the answer.

    There's still so much they can do with Affleck's Batman!

  23. Spenddollarz Avatar
    Spenddollarz

    WB should keep the DCEU imprint which they will they have too they can't turn back now too much money invested and a lot of backlash from doing that would possibly mess up any chance of them making these movies in the future some fans would check out permanently and I don't think they wanna do that WW and its success is enough to make me believe that. Now I don't mind having movies separate from the main imprint they can make the DCE for elseworlds movies and thats cool but they should establish their main continuity before they think about doing these other movies. This rumor makes me believe that they may be trying to adapt a crisis on infinite earth movie in the future which I'm all for but let us get to know these characters and build them up first. That being said how credible are these rumors I know for a fact there is a DCEU bias and we have gotten plenty of reports before that turned out not true so I'm cautious about any rumor I read about . I just really want JL to be a great movie and I want to know what is the vision and plans for this universe and that would make me very happy there is too much on the line for JL not to be great and I have HOPE and believe JL will be great commercially and critically, I believe the next trailer will show superman for the simple fact that he draws audiences to movie theaters and will draw more people in to see JL and I wouldn't be mad if they did cuz we already know he's in the movie

    1. BugsMeany Avatar
      BugsMeany

      ​unsubscribe​

      1. Spenddollarz Avatar
        Spenddollarz

        unfuck yourself

        1. BugsMeany Avatar
          BugsMeany

          Oops. I meant to write that to the disqus notification email thing for this post.

  24. ᗩᖇᑕᕼᗩᑎGᕮᒪᒪ Avatar
    ᗩᖇᑕᕼᗩᑎGᕮᒪᒪ

    Ummmm...Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the whole idea to create an extended universe? I remember hearing from multiple WB personnel how what they were gonna do was going to be so much better than what Marvel was doing. The truth is, WB has no idea what it's doing. This is just another classic example of wanting to reap the benefits of a shared universe without putting in the work. Simple as that.

    Everybody, including me, said that WB's one movie approach to universe building would not work. And here we are. Their supposed shared universe hasn't moved forward, one iota. And their answer to that is to do another stand-alone Batman film? Wow. This one step forward, two steps back crap is getting real old, real fast. It's sad because Man of Steel and Wonder Woman were really good films but being surrounded by crap makes them smell real bad.

    For all the noise they've made about a shared universe and not following through on any of it, they could have just kept making SA movies like they were doing in the first place. It's clear Geoff Johns position is a show position and the real people in charge at WB have absolutely no frickin' clue what they are doing. SMH

  25. A fan Avatar
    A fan

    All of the Iron Man movies are stand-alone movies. No mention of Thanos or the infinity stones. Why can't the Batman movies go the same way?

    1. Knight-Errant Avatar
      Knight-Errant

      I think Reeves was talking about a "standalone" that's not effected or mentions any of the other movies.

      Iron Man 2 didn't mention those storylines (1 because they were on the docket yet), but was essentially the springboard for Avengers.

      Iron Man 3 made references to Avengers & had a Banner cameo post-credits.

      So the IM series of movies weren't really self-contained to the MCU.

  26. Alan Conn Avatar
    Alan Conn

    Ugh... dear god...

  27. Black Adam Avatar
    Black Adam

    Okay, dismantle DCEU if you're unable to make it work properly for everyone's enjoyment. Make standalone's, I don't care. Make them both, again, don't care. Just give me good movies. And please, for the love of God, fix your crippled and confusing marketing WB...

  28. Vger64 Avatar
    Vger64

    I really do like BVS but I'm starting to like the news I'm hearing about The Batman and The Joker standalone movies. Kinda sounds like the DCEU is going to end sooner than later. besides why would you have 2 different universes going on to confuse folks? This also sounds like no Ben in The Batman.

  29. CloakedSparrow Avatar
    CloakedSparrow

    I like the idea of them making some DC films without making them fit with the DCEU, simply because we can get more unique stories. Batman and Robin in 'The Batman' won't have to connect to the Batman and Robins(s) of BvS or SS, which frees up the creators. I was disappointed with the Judas Contract animated film and my complaints boil down to the story being altered to fit the DC Animated Filmverse.

    I think that when you are dealing with characters as iconic as the DC superheroes, you can just tell a good story and the audience will catch on to the fine details as it goes. Everything doesn't need to be interconnected or a trilogy or building off of other films. If they come up with a good story involving Batman encountering any of his rogues, or The Flash teaming up with Green Lantern, or Wonder Woman meeting Wonder Girl, just make the film. Don't try shoehorn it into an existing universe that it wasn't designed to fit into.

    1. Phunny Guy Avatar
      Phunny Guy

      You're basically saying let's abandon the child you gave birth and randomly adopt a new child when we feel like. DCEU fans want a connected universe. You're basically saying abandon us and find a new audience. What kind of moronic thinking is that? You will lose your base. A good Director should know how to maintain current DCEU fans and bring in new ones. You just can't ignore what happened. This is not the DC animated world, this is the DCEU. We have waited all of our lives to see Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, and the JL to exist in one world. Now the WB and frickin Reeves wants to take 100 steps back. It's time for Reeves to go. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!!!

      1. CloakedSparrow Avatar
        CloakedSparrow

        I never said they should scrap the DCEU. I said they should continue to make DC films outside of it. There are enough writers, directors, producers and actors to have stand alone films and the DCEU. How is that alienating anyone? If you are a Batman fan, you are likely going to enjoy The Batman and any other stand alone films starring the character as well as Justice League and any other DCEU appearance with the character.

        Also, movies are not children. Film makers are supposed to make them and then move on to other projects. Studios usually have multiple projects going at once. That's all this would be.

        1. Phunny Guy Avatar
          Phunny Guy

          So keep diluting your franchise to the point where no one gives a crap any more. Eventually, fans and the general public will get bored of it. Look how the Star Trek franchise turned out when they start diluting their material(Deep space 9, Voyager, Enterprise). Less is always best so you have more treasures in your chest to work with.

  30. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Sigh, this is just getting very messy very fast....

Browse By Topic

Browse By Year

Browse By Author

This is an archive of Batman-News.com from 2010 to 2025. For the latest news, check out BatmanNews.com