The U.K. is going back into lockdown for the third time due to the COVID-19 surge in the area, but The Batman, and other productions, will be allowed to continue to film.
The decision was made to enforce much stricter measures when cases began to spike once again in the U.K. Prime Minister Boris announced that England would be joining Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in lockdown, bringing the U.K. to another standstill due to the virus. This lockdown is expected to last until February but it has been confirmed that movie and television productions will continue, and that includes the already long-delayed DC Comics adaptation The Batman.
The U.K.'s secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, Oliver Dowden, laid out what the new regulations will mean for the entertainment industry and they state "For the arts/creative sectors this means you should work from home unless you cant – exemptions include for training and rehearsal of performances, recording studios and film and TV production." It's interesting that productions will continue in the area, despite the lockdown and surge, while productions in Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles, have decided to pause until at least mid-January. There has been much debate about whether or not film and television production is an "essential business" but it's a distinction they have been able to win since beginning to get back to work last summer. You can check out Dowden's tweets about the matter below:
The most recent lockdown begins today and also results in mass school and business closures until at least February. The first lockdown took place in March of 2020 and it caused all productions to shut down. The key difference between then and now is that new safety measures have been properly introduced to make filming a possibility and apparently as long as those are in place, it can be business as usual for film and television productions in the U.K.
The Batman, which has experienced several delays due to the ongoing global situation, is close to wrapping principal photography and can stay on track to make its March 4, 2022 release date. The movie was delayed twice during the pandemic, which made the project come off of its initial June 2021 release date. The U.K. is also the production hub for Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 7 which made its own news when Tom Cruise was none too happy with crew members not following safety protocols on set. I'm sure all the productions in the U.K. are thankful they can continue to work because it certainly could've been a lot worse.