The DCU’s Batman will take a page from the book of Marvel Studios and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
Although Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader stalks the streets of Gotham in The Batman franchise from Matt Reeves, James Gunn also intends to bring in an all-new Bruce Wayne for his and Peter Safran’s revamped DCU. This new Bats will exist in a separate continuity from Reeves' efforts.
No Origin Story for the DCU’s Batman
In a Threads post, DCU boss James Gunn replied to a fan asking why the DCU is "overlooking" origin stories.
Some may recall that Gunn previously confirmed that 2025’s Superman is not an origin tale for the Man of Steel.
The DC Studios co-CEO responded that general audience familiarity is the driving force behind choosing to skip over Clark and Bruce’s early years, and it has a lot to do with how the MCU handled Tom Holland's Spider-Man’s backstory:
"I'm not telling Batman and Superman's origin stories again because everyone knows them."
He raised a good point too. Nearly every live-action Batman adaptation has shown Thomas and Martha Wayne getting gunned down in Crime Alley by a mugger. Suffice it to say that none of this will be depicted in the upcoming Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Several embellishments have been put on this event across incarnations as well.
Sometimes, the gunman becomes the Joker. Sometimes, Martha’s pearls fall to the ground in slow motion. Fox’s television series Gotham Spent five seasons drawing out the origin of the Dark Knight. But the endpoint is always the same.
The bottom line is that if a random individual on the street were asked, chances are they could be able to explain at least part of the story behind how Bruce Wayne became Batman.
On the other side of the comic book movie aisle, Marvel Studios elected to completely jump past Peter Parker’s origin. 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming only made oblique references to the radioactive spider bite and Uncle Ben’s murder.
Even after nearly a decade of Tom Holland's Spidey being a player in the MCU, his early days as a superhero have not been shown.
Homecoming director Jon Watts was quoted on the matter in Sean O’Connel’s book With Great Power: How Spider-Man Conquered Hollywood during the Golden Age of Comic Book Blockbusters (via Screenrant):
"It was just so nice to skip past it and just deal with more with the repercussions… and just explore it from the perspective of someone else finding out about it and having a lot of questions."
Watts' logic is sound. By leapfrogging a hero’s formative days, a comic book movie can cut right to the meat and potatoes and show the characters in action sooner.
The man behind The Batman, Matt Reeves, also remarked on the repetition of Batman’s origin back in 2022, noting that "[fans] have seen [that origin] so many times."
So, for Gunn’s DCU, not only choosing not to show Batman or Superman’s first time out, it’s sidestepping the potential annoyance of the audience as they watch Krypton blow up for the umpteenth time, but it’s also giving the people what they came for, more time with Bruce as Batman.
DC Studios’ Superman hits theaters on July 11, 2025. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is currently without an announced release date.
