Deadline reports that actor Sebastian Stan is the latest MCU veteran to join The Batman Part II, the long-awaited sequel to the 2022 film directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson.
The Batman Part II, written by Reeves and Mattson Tomlin, is expected to begin shooting in the spring, with an eye toward an October 2027 theatrical release from Warner Bros.
“It’s been a long journey, but I am so incredibly excited. I’m really proud of the script me and Mattson did,” Reeves told Variety.
The film is not officially part of the newly launched DCU, but is still being developed under the DC Studios banner, with heads of DC Studios James Gunn, Peter Safran, and Dylan Clark producing. When Gunn and Safran came on board, they announced a slate of upcoming projects, several of which are already in production or post production. The Batman Part II was promised, with other non-canon DC stories — called “Elseworlds” tales — also on the table.
Stan is also set to reprise his MCU role of Bucky Barnes in Avengers: Doomsday later this year, and recently earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in The Apprentice, in which he played Donald Trump opposite Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn.
The Batman grossed $369.3 million domestically and $772 million worldwide in 2022. Pattinson will reprise his role as the Caped Crusader for the sequel, with Stan in an as-yet-undisclosed role. The pair previously appeared together in the 2020 Netflix movie The Devil All the Time.
Stan joins Avengers castmate Scarlett Johansson, as well as a star-studded cast with Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Colin Farrell as Penguin, and Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon. Variety also reported that Barry Keoghan is expected to return as the Joker, but that Zoë Kravitz is not expected to return as Selina Kyle.
DC Studios launched its new cinematic universe last year with Superman, which grossed $615 million worldwide. They will continue with Supergirl flying into theaters on June 26, followed by Clayface directed by James Watkins and screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini set to release in September 2026, and the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow in July 2027. A new Wonder Woman movie is also in development.
Could have at least got Scarlett Johansson’s name right…