In an Esquire interview, Reeves revealed a couple of ways that The Batman would deviate from previous live-action adaptations featuring the dark knight. For example, The Batman won’t tell Bruce’s origin story. Reeves reveals that it’s something that audiences have seen “so many times.” He added that “it’s been done too much”, which is why Reeves didn’t include it in the film anymore. It’s been quite the journey for Matt Reeves’ The Batman to get here. Initially, the project was supposed to revolve around Ben Affleck’s Batman from the DCEU. However, when he left the DCEU, which he recently shed light on, Robert Pattinson was cast as Bruce Wayne and Batman while the entire film was moved to an entirely different continuity. But, as we’ve learned, The Batman will skip his first year of crimefighting and his early childhood to jump straight into his second year as he fights against multiple villains at once. Reeves’ The Batman is an ambitious debut that will feature the likes of Paul Dano’s Riddler and Colin Farrell’s Penguin. In addition, The Batman will see the masked vigilante strike into an uneasy partnership with Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman. As always, Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon are there to lend Batman a helping hand, who will be played by Andy Serkis and Jeffrey Wright, respectively. It will be interesting to see how this departure from previous Batman films will affect the Pattinson-led movie. In the best-case scenario, we might see it find similar success to MCU’s Spider-Man movies. Instead of taking up half of a film exploring how Tom Holland’s Spider-Man became everybody’s friendly neighborhood web-slinger, his first appearance saw Holland already fighting crime at a smaller scale before the entire trilogy effectively evolved into an origin story. If nothing else, plunging audiences deep into a fully-formed Batman allow Reeves to tell an intense and action-packed story right off the bat. Speaking of The Batman’s story, recent reports suggest that the movie’s runtime is nearly three hours including the credits scene. If true, The Batman would be the longest Batman film yet and the third-longest superhero film ever.
