When Christopher Nolan announced his latest movie would be an adaptation of the ancient epic poem The Odyssey, film fans started getting excited for 2026. The year may still be a while off, but the release schedule is already packed: Dune 3, Avengers: Doomsday, Supergirl, and Mike Flanagan’s Clayface will all be released during that year. However, there was yet another superhero movie that, until recently, was part of this illustrious 2026 club: The Batman Part II, the sequel to the 2022 movie The Batman, was scheduled to premiere on Oct. 2, 2026.
However, that’s all changed now, posing a major issue for Matt Reeves’ Batverse — and repeating the worst pattern from the first Batman movie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Batman Part II has been delayed almost exactly a year from Oct. 2, 2026 to Oct. 1, 2027. This isn’t the first time the movie has been delayed — in fact, it’s not even the first time the movie has been delayed an entire year. It originally was slated for Oct. 3, 2025, then moved to 2026 in March 2024. The still-untitled movie collaboration between Alejandro González Iñárritu and Tom Cruise will take the 2026 slot instead.
The Batman was delayed multiple times as well. During worldwide production delays in 2020 and 2021, The Batman was pushed twice from June 2021 to its ultimate release date in March 2022. Those delays were out of the hands of director Matt Reeves, and still only pushed the film’s release back a handful of months, not two years.
This delay does pose an issue for the franchise. Four years between parts of what will (hopefully) be a trilogy is already a shocking gap — the move to 2027 means it’s up to five years. The long gap was sated somewhat by The Penguin, the TV spinoff focusing on Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), Gotham’s newest crime lord, and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the Arkham alumna looking to stake her own claim. With this delay, there will still be three years between The Penguin and The Batman Part II — plenty of time for fans to forget what what happened or lose interest.
When The Batman Part II was delayed a year the first time, it was a sign of taking the time to make a good product, and The Penguin’s success soothed worries the gap would be too much. However, this delay is only cause for more concern: Now, there’s no clear reason for these delays and The Penguin is already feeling like a distant memory. This knight may be going dark for far too long.
