Written by Joe Jackson on Apr 27, 2022. Posted in Production News

Sequel confirmed as The Batman's box office passes USD750 million

Warner Bros. Pictures has confirmed that director Matt Reeves is scripting a sequel to The Batman. Reeves and Dylan Clark will return to produce the project, with actor Robert Pattinson once again set to star as the Caped Crusader. Confirmation of a forthcoming sequel took place at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, when the film's director was joined onstage by Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich. This announcement follows news that the original film officially passed the USD750 million mark at the global box office.

While Liverpool was the primary filming location for The Batman, parts of London and Glasgow were also used to create Gotham City, the dark, claustrophobic metropolis that the film's (anti)hero calls home. Reeves previously emphasised that he wanted his interpretation of Gotham “to feel like an American city you’d never been to.”

Rather than using New York’s Times Square to capture the grittiness of Gotham Square, the production team turned to the gothic architecture of Wellington Square in Liverpool. St George’s Hall and Royal Liver Building - two of the English city’s most famous buildings - depict Gotham City Hall and Gotham City Police Department respectively.

Glasgow’s Necropolis cemetery features at the film’s conclusion, and the neglected Hartwood Psychiatric Hospital in Scotland’s Schotts area is transformed into an abandoned Gotham orphanage.

In London, the 02 Arena plays Gotham’s interpretation of Madison Square Garden while the Kingsway Tram Tunnel serves as the mysterious entrance to the Batcave. The capital’s Printworks Nightclub - an innovative, multipurpose events space that was once home to the largest printing factory in Western Europe - becomes the seedy Iceberg Lounge, home of troublemaking gangster The Penguin.

HBO Max recently revealed a new series centring around Colin Farrell as The Penguin is in the pipeline, directly drawing from the universe launched by Reeves’s The Batman. Reeves is currently teaming up J.J. Abrams and DC universe veteran Bruce Timm on the streamer’s upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader.

The filmmaker’s prior films include the hugely successful Planet of the Apes franchise, the acclaimed fantasy horror film Let Me In, and the sci-fi horror hit Cloverfield, among others. Reeves’s additional credits include the popular TV series Felicity, which he co-created with Abrams, as well as the series Ordinary Joe, Lift, Mother/Android, Away, Tales from the Loop and The Passage.

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Group Entertainment