Robert Pattinson’s Batman universe finally has a name, and it is quite possibly the name of your best friend in high-school
The world of Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson’s The Batman finally has a name, and it could very well be the name of one of your old mates. Maybe. Sort of.
Right now, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn is building out the new DC cinematic universe, with Superman set to kick things off next year. But, there were a couple of films based on DC properties that were popular enough to warrant their own sequels, despite not being connected to the old or new DCU. These films are set in DC’s Elseworlds, projects that won’t be connected to the DCU in anyway, but still adapt something from DC’s library, with Joker 2 is coming up later this year, set in its own little chaotic corner of Gotham, and of course a sequel to The Batman is on the way. Before either of those releases, though, The Batman is getting a TV-show spinoff in the form of The Penguin, due out this September. And now, director Matt Reeves has slapped a name on his take on Gotham: BECS.
You remember Becs right? Rebecca, from your science class, you were super close before the incident? OK, much like Becs is short for Rebecca, BECS is short for “Batman Epic Crime Saga” a title that Reeves shared in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. With a name like that, you’d possibly assume that Reeves and his producing partner Dylan Clark would want to launch a whole universe of projects – and you’d be exactly right. As mentioned, that universe-expansion kicks off with The Penguin.
Reeves was also working on an Arkham Asylum series, as well as a Gotham City Police Department show, but they eventually got shelved. “As we were writing the movie [The Batman], I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? I think there are some cool shows that we could do,” Reeves told EW. “It was actually why I wanted to make our deal at Warner Bros.” Execs at HBO apparently offered some guidance though, Reeves continuing, “They were like, ‘We like what you’re doing, and we want to lean harder into the marquee characters.'”
Some of the Gotham P.D. show’s elements made their way into The Penguin though, apparently. “”What’s interesting is that, in the movie, the big red herring of the story is it seems like the person they’re looking for, that the Riddler’s pointing to must be the Penguin, some kind of informant. This movie creates a power vacuum, and because Penguin is so underestimated, people don’t really see who he is.”
The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc also explained that the upcoming series is “the bridge between” the first Batman and its sequel, with the Colin Farrell-led show taking place a week after the events of The Batman, leading “almost directly into the second film Matt has planned.”
Clark also shared that “there’s another television exploration we’re going to do,” explaining that they’re “looking at this entire world as it relates to who Batman is – the antagonists around them, all the crime that has to be navigated in the city – and trying to figure out where are the areas that are best to explore.” No clarification was offered there, but if you’re a fan of The Batman, it essentially sounds like you have a lot to look forward to.
