Ever since the DCEU debuted Ben Affleck's Batman in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, fans have been wondering when we'd get to see the character in his own solo movie. Shortly after, it was confirmed Ben Affleck would helm and pen a solo Batman movie and that they had cast actor Joe Manganiello as the iconic DC villain Deathstroke.
Since then, Affleck has walked away from the director's chair and War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves came on to fill his position. At the time, it was unclear if Reeves would keep Affleck's script but now we have an answer.
Speaking an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Reeves confirmed that he's going to be moving forward with an all new script.
"No, it’s a new story. It’s just starting again. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to be really cool.” said Reeves.
Reeves just finished War of the Planet of the Apes a couple of weeks ago so he has only just begun working on The Batman and he doesn't really have any details to share due to the fact there are very little details actually set in stone. While most people might see this news as bad or scary news due to the fact there's been a lot of issues with DC scripts getting immense rewrites and what not, this may not be a bad thing.
Matt Reeves has an incredibly good track record with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Cloverfield, and the very well received War for the Planet of the Apes. It's probably better that he isn't being forced to do a script he may not want to do and is allowed a lot of creative freedom. Given his history, there's reason to trust Matt Reeves and not be concerned.
It's unclear if Reeves will keep Joe Manganiello onboard as Deathstroke or if he's going to throw out the character entirely. Hopefully, we'll hear something, even if it's something incredibly small, at Warner Brothers' San Diego Comic-Con panel later this month. Is it likely? Probably not but we can hope!
The Batman probably won't begin production until 2018 which would mean it also won't release until at least 2019 due to the fact Aquaman holds a late 2018 release slot.
Matt Reeves' new film, War for the Planet of the Apes, opens on July 14th, 2017.
