‘The Batman’ Director Finally Reveals Key Details About Part 2

The hit HBO series The Penguin has now delighted and shocked audiences in equal measure, leaving Batman fans ready for Matt Reeves’ big screen follow-up, The Batman: Part II. While plot details remain tightly under wraps, Reeves has finally offered some insight into where we will find our titular following the events of both the first The Batman and Oz Cobb’s critically acclaimed crime saga.

Speaking with Digital Spy, Reeves revealed not only how The Penguin directly leads into The Batman Part 2, but how Robert Pattinson’s fledgling Bruce Wayne will have been affected by the events of the first movie. And it sounds like everything is weighing heavily on Mr. Wayne, who is now finding it “very hard to be Batman”.

“This was a time of great turmoil in the city, it’s literally the week after what happened. Much of the city is in desperation, so police can’t get everywhere, there’s crime everywhere, it’s a very, very dangerous time.

[Batman’s] out there trying to grapple with the aftermath of everything that happened, which to some degree he blames himself for.”

This Finally Explains Why Batman Was Absent During the Events of ‘The Penguin’

One of the big questions left behind by The Penguin was “where the hell is Batman during Cobb’s criminal uprising?” Well, it seems we now have our answer, with Gotham City at large finding itself in desperation and turmoil (even worse than before) with The Dark Knight not only struggling to handle the level of crime but also questioning whether he should be dressing up and beating criminals in the first place.

This overwhelming level of crime is what enabled Cobb and the gangsters of Gotham to ride roughshod over everything, with Batman both too busy and too distracted by the existential crisis he’s currently going through. However, as teased by the final moments of The Penguin, now that Cobb has found himself at the tippy top, he has also found himself on Batman’s radar. Cue The Bat versus The Penguin.

The Batman: Part II is now scheduled to be released in the United States on October 2, 2026, with Reeves writing the script alongside Mattson Tomlin. The filmmaker offered a few other details regarding the direction of the DC sequel back in September, teasing an expansion of what began in The Batman which “delves deeper” into the inner workings of both Bruce Wayne and Gotham.

“We’ve shared [the script] as we’ve been going along with DC, and they’re super excited… 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. Batman is constantly battling these forces. But those forces can’t be entirely exorcised. So the next movie delves deeper into that.”

Release Date

October 2, 2026

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