Matt Reeves' The Batman Part II is filming in the UK, has a release date of 18 February 2028, and has spent the last fortnight at the centre of a casting rumour that fell apart almost as soon as it started. Here is what is actually confirmed, and what is not.
Where is the film now?
In production. Cameras rolled at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in early summer, with Colin Farrell confirming in June that he had shot his scenes as Oz Cobb and that the Penguin's role this time is a small one. No wrap date has been announced. On 15 July the studio moved the release from 1 October 2027 to 18 February 2028 and, to soften the blow, released the first camera-test footage: Robert Pattinson's Batman standing in falling snow, shot by new cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt. It was thirty seconds long and it did its job.
Who is in it?
Pattinson, Jeffrey Wright as Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred and Farrell are all back. The new names are the interesting ones: Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Charles Dance, Brian Tyree Henry and Sebastian Koch have all been confirmed as cast, and not one of them has a confirmed character. Reeves has said only that the villains were chosen to explore Bruce Wayne's past in a way that has not been done on screen before, which has been enough to keep Gotham's forums busy since May.
What happened with Sebastian Stan?
In mid-August a French outlet quoted Stan as confirming he was playing Harvey Dent. The quote went round the world, the outlet quietly deleted it, and by 19 August The Wrap and others were reporting that he had been misquoted entirely. So the position is where it was: Stan is in the film, and Two-Face, Victor Zsasz, Hush and the Court of Owls are all guesses. Barry Keoghan's Joker is widely expected to return and has not been officially confirmed either. Reeves runs a tight ship and the film is eighteen months away. Expect this to happen again.
What about The Penguin?
Still not renewed. The HBO series was the best thing to come out of Reeves' Gotham, and its Writers Guild production listing has shifted into a 2026 to 2027 window, which people are reading as a soft yes. But there has been no announcement, Farrell's availability is unclear, and showrunner Lauren LeFranc has said she would only come back with a story that beat the first one. Nothing will move until the film wraps.
Save the date
18 February 2028, assuming it holds. The first film took three years and a pandemic to arrive and was worth it. Reeves is not a director who is hurried, and Warner Bros. appears to have stopped trying.
Halidom's Batman editions cover Gotham from 1989 onwards.