Not that there was any doubt, but Warner Bros. announced during their CinemaCon presentation that they’re officially developing a sequel to The Batman with Robert Pattinson set to return as the Dark Knight. Matt Reeves will also return to write and direct the sequel to The Batman. “Thank you all for your tremendous support for The Batman,” Reeves said. “We couldn’t have gotten here without the faith and enthusiasm of all your teams around the world. I’m excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter.“
The Batman was recently launched on HBO Max and was a huge success, with over 720,000 U.S. households watching the film on its first day. The film is still playing in theaters where it has grossed $759 million worldwide. There’s already been plenty of talk about The Batman sequel of course, including which villain Robert Pattinson will find himself up against. Although Barry Keoghan did play the Joker in a brief scene where he befriended Riddler (Paul Dano), Matt Reeves has said that that scene was more about concluding Riddler’s arc than setting up the Joker for the sequel.
Warner Bros. also screened an extended preview of Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic, with the director telling the crowd that he loved The Batman, but that we can’t live on Batman alone. Enter Elvis. Our own Chris Bumbray is on the scene at CinemaCon and said that the footage (playing with a hip-hop cover of Hound Dog) was very different from the first trailer but just as effective. Elvis will be a wild, frenetic telling of the iconic musician’s life through the eyes of Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). The film also won’t shy away from emphasizing and celebrating Elvis’ ties to the Black community and the influence they had on his music. Although Luhrmann said that Elvis will be “more accessible” than his previous work, it’s still very much a Baz Luhrmann movie, with the director treating Elvis like a superhero.
Elvis will debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month before hitting theaters on June 24, 2022.