There’s a new Batman in Gotham City, but if this latest leak is correct, 2021’s The Batman could have a lot in common with the best DC Comics movie of all time.
According to a report on the Production List, Batman will restart shooting July 6 at Chicago. The Robert Pattinson reboot was formerly filming England (presumably for a few spooky Arkham Asylum scenes) before the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to production. (Production List is a membership website that helps TV and film-makers find work on upcoming projects, and the Batman listing was reshared on Reddit’s DCEU escapes community with the caveat that PL is not always reliable).
That is big news for anyone worried The Batman might not hit its October 2021 release date following the film was already delayed from its first June 25 premiere. It is even bigger news for fans of those Christopher Nolan Batman films, especially the critically acclaimed second film, The Dark Knight.
Even though Gotham is a literary town, it is sometimes regarded as the DC world’s stand-in for New York. (Some DC stories really occur in NYC, but in the early days of Batman comics, the two towns were the same.) Nonetheless, in The Dark Knight, Nolan flipped that convention by filming mostly in Chicago, which gave the film its different look.
The Dark Knight Rises returned to NYC (it also shot in London and Pittsburgh) to facilitate Bane’s assault on the moneyed elite as represented by Wall Street – that the similarities with Occupy Wall Street were seemingly just an unfortunate event. Rises had its moments, but you will find few Batman fans who’d argue it is anywhere near as good as its predecessor, The Dark Knight.
This The Batman will also be taken in Chicago (at least partly ) is good news for anyone hoping for a return to the style and tone of The Dark Knight. And that production could resume in a few months is excellent news for anyone expecting manager Matt Reeves’ vision for the Caped Crusader and the performance as the world’s greatest detective of Robert Pattinson.
There is a lot we still don’t know about The Batman. Still, with a stellar cast and a rogues’ gallery of villains (Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and mob boss Carmine Falcone are confirmed), this is shaping up for a reasonably exciting film. The risk that it could feature the backdrop as the most excellent movie ever is just one more reason we could barely await its release.