Batman: Brave and the Bold DCU Movie Takes a Cryptic Turn

Quick pulse check on DC Studios' Batman movie: James Gunn says The Brave and the Bold is alive, still director Andy Muschietti’s gig, and still very much in flux. Translation: not cast, not dated, and the story has shifted since he first laid it out. It’s a small update, but it does move the ball a bit.

Where things stand right now

• No actor is locked in for Batman/Bruce Wayne yet. Gunn confirmed that in a new interview on the Emergency Awesome YouTube channel.
• Andy Muschietti (who directed 2023’s The Flash) is attached to direct.
• There’s no release date from Warner Bros. Pictures.
• The initial plan Gunn announced when he and Peter Safran took over DC Studios is still the foundation, but the story has changed since he first pitched it publicly.
• It’s not guaranteed that Batman’s first DCU appearance will be in The Brave and the Bold. He could pop up elsewhere first — Clayface was name-checked as a possibility.
• DCU scheduling snapshot: Lanterns is currently expected in 2026 (no day-and-date yet), with Supergirl and Clayface also slated for 2026.

So what changed?

Emergency Awesome, who spoke with Gunn, says the film’s story has been reworked significantly since that original reveal. No specifics. No new logline. Just a heads-up that the creative is evolving behind the scenes.

"They have changed a lot of what the story was going to be."

Helpful? Not really. But it does explain the radio silence and why there’s no casting news yet.

The original pitch, in plain English

Back in 2023, Gunn framed The Brave and the Bold as the formal entry point for Batman in the DCU. The hook was Batman and his son, Damian Wayne, drawing from Grant Morrison’s comics run. Damian’s the hard-edged Robin with assassin training, and the movie was meant to kick off the broader Bat-family dynamic in this continuity. That’s still the DNA as far as we know — just expect tweaks.

Will Batman show up before his own movie?

That’s the intriguing part. If DC slips him into another project first — say, Clayface — it would buy time while the main script gets sorted and keep the shared-universe momentum going. Makes sense strategically, but nothing’s official.

Big picture

The Brave and the Bold was one of the tentpoles Gunn announced right after he and Safran became co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios. It’s still a priority, but the DCU rollout is clearly paced: Lanterns looks up next in 2026, with Supergirl and Clayface circling the same year. Batman is coming — the exact route and timing are the parts still being sketched in.