The news of Martin Scorsese and Todd Phillips making a Joker origin story still has the comics world shook, but it shouldn't be lost that this is just the first step in a new Warner Bros. plan. The film will be part of new banner making spinoffs that won't be part of the traditional DCEU continuity, but we're now learning it won't be the first. It will instead be preceded by Matt Reeves' The Batman.
Reeves joined KCRW's The Business podcast shortly before Comic-Con and revealed what finally got him to sign on to the project, which you may recall he dropped out of before coming back.
“Well, I have a vision for a way to do something with that character that feels like it resonates with me personally, and a perspective that can grow out into other things. When they [Warner Bros.] approached me, what they said was ‘Look, it’s a standalone, it’s not part of the extended universe."
Oi. Well, this news puts some other things into perspective. With Ben Affleck rumored to be dropping out after Justice League, and Reeves throwing out his The Batman script in favor of his own, it would make sense for a new actor to be in the role for a reboot. This may be the firmest evidence yet that Affleck is outta there.
We know that Reeves has a trilogy planned out in his head, and you know Warner Bros. will do anything to earn the kind of critical and box office acclaim that Christopher Nolan's movies did, even if means keeping Batman away from the core Justice League movies for a while. Personally, I think they're overthinking things and trying to do too much, and all it will do is confuse audiences who just want to see Batman alongside the other heroes. [Batman On Film]
