James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU is growing at a steady clip. In 2026 alone, we’ve seen new movies like Supergirl and Clayface and gotten a deep dive into all things Green Lantern with the Lanterns series. But for many DC fans, there are only two questions that need answering right now. First, is Adria Arjona actually playing Wonder Woman in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow? Second, where the heck is Batman?!?
We can’t help with the first question, but we can tackle the second. The Dark Knight remains elusive despite Clayface taking place in Gotham City. As we explored in our Clayface Ending Explained, don’t expect Batman to put in an appearance in this Batman-adjacent film. So what do we actually know about the DCU version of this iconic hero? Does Batman currently exist in the DCU? Here’s what we know so far.
Is Robert Pattinson’s Batman in the DCU?
When Gunn and Safran took charge of the DC brand back in 2023, they inherited a few loose ends from the previous regime. That includes Matt Reeves’ Batman franchise, which kicked off with The Batman in 2022 and continued in The Penguin series in 2024. Many fans wondered if Gunn and Safran would simply fold Robert Pattinson’s Batman into their new DCU, making The Batman the unofficial start of this rebooted universe.
However, Gunn has been pretty clear from the start that this isn’t the plan. When he and Safran revealed the Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters slate in 2023, they confirmed their intention to introduce a new version of the Dark Knight in a movie called Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Progress on that film has been slow in the years since, but it’s still very much in the works.
That means DC is in the slightly awkward position of juggling two simultaneous versions of Batman in live-action. Pattinson will reprise his role in the upcoming The Batman - Part II, which is currently slated for release in February 2028. And Gunn and his collaborators will eventually cast a second actor to play a different Batman in The Brave and the Bold (a film which likely won’t hit theaters before 2029 at the earliest). It remains to be seen if the two versions of the characters will continue to coexist or if The Batman - Part II will end up being the swan song for Reeves’ “The Batman Epic Crime Saga.”
We do expect there to be a fairly stark tonal difference separating these two versions of Batman, at least. The Batman and its follow-ups lean heavily into the darker, grittier, more noir-flavored side of the franchise. Gunn’s Batman, we assume, will be a relatively more family-friendly and comics-inspired take on the character, more akin to how 2025’s Superman handled the Man of Steel. Gunn has previously revealed that The Brave and the Bold is heavily inspired by Grant Morrison’s Batman comics and will introduce Bruce Wayne’s long-lost son Damian.
Does Batman Exist in the DCU?
So far, we’ve established that the DCU has its own version of Batman distinct from the one played by Pattinson. The next key question is simple - where is he? Does Batman already exist in the DCU, or is he still an idea lurking in the depths of Bruce Wayne’s psyche?
By now, we have ample evidence to prove that, yes, Batman does exist and is active in the DCU. To date, the only physical appearance of the Caped Crusader has come in Creature Commandos Season 1, where we briefly see a silhouetted Batman looming on a rooftop. That lone appearance doesn’t tell us much about how old Batman is or what his costume looks like, but it’s a start.
Lanterns also includes a handful of nods to Batman. Kelly Macdonald’s character is named Kerry Kane. As a former Gotham native, we have to assume she’s part of the famous Kane dynasty, making her at least a distant cousin to Bruce Wayne. And Batman himself gets a mention in Episode 5 when Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) briefly reconnect in 2026. Hal mocks Earth’s current Green Lantern Guy Gardner when he says, “Ripped off that Bat guy over in Gotham, too. Put a beacon right in the middle of the f***in’ town here so people can summon him.”
And we even have confirmation that Batman exists in the Clayface movie, despite the fact that he never appears or is even directly mentioned. Safran told Collider, “We haven't really talked about what he's doing during the actual events of Clayface. But Batman is there. This is the introduction to the live-action Gotham. We showed a silhouette of Batman in Creature Commandos, so you know he's around, but this is the first step into the world of Gotham for us.”
How Long Has Batman Been Active?
The DCU definitely has a Batman, one who clearly likes to keep a low profile. But how long has he been around? Is he a relatively recent addition to the DCU’s lineup of costumed heroes, or is he more of a grizzled veteran like Hal Jordan?
That’s a hard question to answer based on the evidence we have so far. The DCU seems to unfold more or less in real time, so we can infer that his Creature Commandos cameo happened in 2024. And Clayface also seems to be a fairly contemporary movie. It is worth noting that Batman isn’t mentioned during the 2016 storyline in Lanterns, only the 2026 storyline. So there aren’t really any confirmed sightings of or references to the character before the 2020s.
On the other hand, the fact that The Brave and the Bold is drawing on Morrison’s comic book run suggests the film will be dealing with a somewhat older and more firmly established version of the Dark Knight than we’re seeing in the Reeves-verse. By the time Morrison left his mark on the character, Batman had years of adventures under his belt and a full roster of teen and adult sidekicks backing him up.
Most importantly, Morrison's Batman is old enough to have fathered a preteen son with Talia al Ghul. If their romantic tryst happened while Bruce was already Batman, then he’ll probably be approaching middle age by now. Even if the movie reveals that Bruce hooked up with Talia while he was still traveling the globe and training to become Batman, it stands to reason he’s been Batman for a good while.
The Superman movie revealed that Kal-El first began his superhero career in 2022. We suspect that the DCU Batman has been around at least a little longer than that. Maybe he stayed in the shadows early on, but he’s established enough now that he’s got the Bat-Signal installed atop GCPD headquarters and is whispered about by other superheroes.
But does he have a relationship with those other heroes? Is he BFFs with David Corenswet’s Superman yet? Maybe Man of Tomorrow will reveal more in 2027. Until then, we’ll keep patiently waiting for Gunn to announce the Batman casting.
For more, brush up on every upcoming DC movie and series.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.