The Batman Part II's release date has been delayed

Bad news, Dark Knight fans. Warner Bros. announced today that Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II has been delayed a full year from its original release date, which means you’ll just have to content yourself with some of the zillion other Batman movies that have been released while you wait. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Robert Pattinson-starring film will now premiere October 2, 2026. It was originally supposed to open October 3, 2025.

The sequel to Reeves’ original 2022 film was first announced at CinemaCon April of the same year, and it is presumed to be a part of a trilogy. “I’m excited to jump back in for another chapter,” the director said at the time. Mattson Tomlin will co-write with Reeves, and Pattinson is signed on to reprise his role as the Caped Crusader. Other stars from the first film like Zoë Kravitz, Barry Keoghan, Andy Serkis, and Jeffrey Wright have not been confirmed yet. (In January, Wright told Entertainment Tonight that he had yet to see a script for the film, but “just want[s] to go forward with it.”) The film has also inspired at least two developing spin-offs thus far, both slated to land on Max: Arkham Asylum from Reeves and a separate show starring The Penguin. No firm dates have been attached to those yet.

Per THR, sources from DC say the delay is related to last year’s strikes, which wasn’t hard to surmise. But the slate-related news coming out of the studio isn’t all bad. Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed film The Bride! starring Christian Bale will take The Batman Part II’s old 2025 date, which means a Batman-adjacent film is still kinda coming out on that day. Other date announcements include gangster film Alto Knights, which was moved from November 24, 2024 to March 21, 2025, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled but very star-studded next film, which will officially premiere August 8, 2025. (Confirmed stars for the PTA project include Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, and Chase Infiniti.)

While the Batman Part II news may be disappointing, there’s at least one silver lining: Reeves has even more time to get Nicolas Cage onboard to play Egghead, per Cage’s own wishes, if he hasn’t already. Fingers crossed!