James Gunn Debunks A 'Very Strange' Batman Rumor

13.02.2024 - 22:00 / gamerant.com / Bruce Wayne / Harley Quinn / Peter Safran / Ademilade ShodipeDosunmu / James

While James Gunn's Batman: The Brave and the Bold project for his and Peter Safran's rebooted DC Universe is set to make a theatrical release in the Chapter One slate titled Gods and Monsters, one fan on social media has a strange question about the possibility of the Dark Knight appearing on the small screen.

No doubt largely due to Batman's immense popularity, the Caped Crusader would be prominently featured alongside Superman and Supergirl in Gunn's Chapter 1 slate with the announcement of the theatrical project Batman: The Brave and the Bold. While the film is still far from starting production, filmmaker Andy Muschietti has been attached to direct, hot off his ambitious but ultimately doomed work on The Flash. Beyond this, nothing else has been officially revealed about the project, leading to much speculation about the film and the main character himself.

While Gunn correcting rumors about Batman: The Brave and the Bold'srelease date and more on social media has become common for the DC Studios head, one fan recently put forth a rumor that even Gunn found perplexing. Addressing the iconic filmmaker and studio exec directly via Threads, one fan asked, “@jamesgunn is it true Disney owns the rights to Batman on TV which is why he’s never really shown up on a TV show since the Adam West Show? Which is why all we’ve ever gotten is Bruce Wayne on TV or mentions of Batman? Thanks.” This query would receive a straightforward negative response from Gunn, who then commented that the rumor was «very strange.»

The rumor is strange, as it is generally well known that Warner Bros has historically been extremely protective of Batman, limiting the character’s appearances and cameos to keep the air of importance around him. This mentality was the deciding factor in the greenlighting of Smallville when a similarly constructed Batman-focused TV series was strongly considered behind the scenes. Furthermore, the TV rights for the character are demonstrably held by WB, as Batman has featured prominently in several animated TV shows, including several in the '90s and early 2000s, with the character most recently featuring in the animated Harley Quinn TV series set to continue after Gunn's reboot. It seems plain that the executives consider animated shows to be less risky but are concerned about the damage a low-budget Batman on the small screen could do to the notoriously difficult-to-write character. Regarding the impact of each live-action Batman appearance, it becomes easy to understand the apprehension.

While there’s little chance of anyone getting Batman on the small screen, fans can instead look forward to Creature Commandos, a project that will launch the DCU officially and one that Gunn hopes to recreate his Guard