Whoever first uttered the phrase “good things come to those who wait” never had to age more than half a decade before seeing a sequel to their favorite superhero movie. But alas, that’s exactly the predicament Dark Knight stans like myself find ourselves in as we endure a six-year gap between the Matt Reeves-directed, Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman and The Batman: Part II.
The first flick was so successful that the second was announced just a month later in 2022. But sadly, the film’s arrival hasn’t been nearly as quick, and details about the plot are as elusive as the Caped Crusader himself. With film studios continually flooding the e-streets with news of new superheroes, multiverses, and flicks that sustain filmverses seemingly for their own sake, it can be hard to parse social media and figure out what’s what with The Batman: Part II. Luckily, we’ve got you covered with a breakdown of what we know, what we think we know, and what we don’t.
What We Know
When It’s Coming Out
After multiple pump fakes, the folks at Warner finally crystallized the release date for The Batman: Part II. This past July, the studio announced that The Batman sequel is headed to theaters on Feb. 18, 2028—just a hit less than six years after the first one. So basically, it’s one of the few things actually coming after GTA VI.
Why The Hold Up
The phrase “you can’t rush greatness” is common enough—and true enough—to be a cliché, but when it comes to The Batman: Part II, it’s really getting pushed to the limit. Warner originally planned for the flick to be released on Oct. 3, 2025, but because of the 2023 writers’ strike and a meticulous writing style that writer-director Matt Reeves admitted wasn’t conducive to speed, it kept getting pushed back. By the time Reeves finished the script in June 2025, it was clear we wouldn’t be seeing the flick for a relatively long time. So a release date projected for 2025 eventually moved to 2026. And then late 2027, which in turn became early 2028. The writing held things up originally, but the final date push was reportedly for extra post-production time.
Where It Picks Up
At the end of The Batman, the titular hero has just saved Gotham City from a major flood orchestrated by The Riddler, seemingly getting himself some goodass PR in the process. But, as is usually the case in the world of superheroes, there’s no rest for the brooding. In HBO’s The Penguin TV series, we see that, just after Bruce Wayne’s heroic level up, The Penguin (Colin Farrell) has taken advantage of Carmine Falcone’s demise and lied, cheated, and stolen his way to status as perhaps the city’s top crime boss. It’s now winter, and Batman will have to help clean up the mess that he, in effect, helped create.
Who’s In It
Of course, Pattinson’s reprising his role as sad boy-vigilante Bruce Wayne/Batman, Andy Serkis is returning as his butler-father figure Alfred Pennyworth, and Jeffrey Wright is pulling up as Jim Gordon again. All of that was clear from the jump. More good news: Colin Farrell is also returning as Oz Cobb—aka, The Penguin. All good stuff. But the newbies are just as exciting.
A rumor was floating around that Brian Tyree Henry was playing Harvey Dent, but his role hasn’t been disclosed. (You have to wonder whether people would’ve started crying about a Black Harvey Dent, though!) Sebastian Koch’s role has also yet to be disclosed.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s unclear here, but grabbing those guys and being all mysterious and whatnot smells like some purposeful misdirection. Maybe Talia al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises style? If not with them, then maybe someone else.
Sebastian Stan, who famously plays Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and Scarlett Johansson, who obviously used to play the role of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in the MCU, are also set to star in the flick.
I don’t know if you’ve been keeping track but, that now makes three MCU alums in the flick. If you recall, Andy Serkis played Ulysses Klaue — the literal opposite of Alfred — in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther. Maybe we get Chris Evans in Pt. III?
What We Might Know
The Penguin Is Involved — But Not Central
This guy just had his own show and Batman already spent a sizable portion of the first flick beating his ass, so it wouldn’t really make sense to make him the major Bad Guy here. Like the MCU and other companies that did some effective world-building (and had gigantic budgets), Penguin will likely be in the film as some intermediary force that they could’ve technically made some fairly anonymous evil-doer. This efficiently reinforces the universe while moving the plot forward with a character you don’t have to waste a lot of time characterizing.
The Public Has Turned Against Bruce Wayne
We don’t have much context for this, but, in footage we’ve seen of Bruce Wayne walking down some town hall steps, it looks like the crowd of protesters isn’t exactly fucking with him. Maybe it’s on some “eat the rich” shit.
Or maybe they think he’s part of a secret organization gradually and systemically destroying their city …
The Court of Owls Is Involved
Now, this one might not be so speculative—but their role kind of is. Unless it’s a decoy, it seems like we’ve got some proof. In recent footage of Pattinson walking down the steps of what looks like a town hall, we can see at least one protester holding a poster that says “Court of Fowls,” a clear allusion to a clandestine society controlling all the most important economic shit in the city — Aka, Gotham’s Illuminati. If they really are involved in the story, this could all get more convoluted than a lie you told your girlfriend to convince her you weren’t cheating.
What We Don’t Know
What It’s About
Yeah, besides Reeves’ vague explanations about Bruce Wayne’s existential crisis and city corruption or whatever, we really have no direct answers. But the casting leaves us some clues.
More on that later (aka keep reading).
Who Is the Main Villain
As I said, we don’t officially know.
Who TF Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan Are Playing
Last winter, Hollywood insider Jeff Sneider reported that Sebastian Stan would be playing the role of Harvey Dent and Scarlett Johansson would be playing the role of his wife, Gilda Dent. And it seems like a lot of publications ran with it. And if they did, the plotline for The Batman: Part II became somewhat obvious.
If you’re familiar enough with Batman comics, this particular arrangement would have aligned pretty well with The Long Halloween. You know, the one where Harvey Dent, Batman, and Jim Gordon join forces to solve the mystery of just who’s been catching a particular set of bodies in Gotham’s criminal underworld. Harvey and Gilda Dent are central figures in that storyline, and Johansson and Stan are acclaimed actors who surely wouldn’t be wasted on some unknown roles, so it seemed like Sneider’s report made sense.
But this summer, Sneider spun the block to say he’d actually heard that neither actor would be playing the roles his intel initially told him. According to his sources, Stan is supposed to play Victor Zsasz and Brian Tyree Henry is supposed to play Harvey Dent. Johansson’s role remains unknown.
[Ed. Note: There was an August Le Journal du Dimanche interview in which Stan allegedly said that he would be playing Dent, but “insiders” claimed that he was misquoted and the quote was subsequently removed. Could be legit, but could also be Warner higher-ups getting upset and having Stan’s team put pressure on the pub to remove the quote. Guess we’ll see in 2028.]
