Steven Soderbergh will finish shooting The Batman Part II, a film first dated for 2025
Matt Reeves stepped away for a family matter in early October. The sequel's second planned release date had been October 2, 2026.
Steven Soderbergh will shoot the last weeks of The Batman Part II. Matt Reeves stepped away from the set in early October to deal with a family matter, and Deadline reports that Soderbergh, a longtime admirer of Reeves's work, offered to help finish principal photography. The two will stay in contact until filming ends, and Reeves will take over post-production when he is ready to return.
The pause began on October 5. The film's second release date had been October 2, 2026.
A sequel that has already missed three dates
The Batman Part II is now set for February 18, 2028. According to Wikipedia, that is its fourth date:
- October 3, 2025: the original plan.
- October 2, 2026: the first delay, caused by the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
- October 1, 2027: moved to allow more time for writing.
- February 18, 2028: moved in the middle of July 2026, once filming was already underway, to give post-production more time.
So the shutdown came three days after the date the film was once meant to open. Deadline's sources say it is too early to know whether the stoppage will affect the 2028 date.
Helping out, or directing the rest
The official wording is careful. DC Studios says Soderbergh "approached Matt" and will step in "to help the writer-director complete the final weeks of principal photography", with the two working closely together with the actors and crew "to fulfill Matt's vision of the film".
Soderbergh's own statement puts it the same way. "I thought Matt Reeves' work on The Batman was stunning; it was intentional, specific, and rigorously coherent," he said. The goal is to "generate footage that will integrate seamlessly with what's already been shot so Matt can properly finish his film." Reeves posted on social media that he was not leaving the project and thanked Soderbergh for stepping in.
Wikipedia describes the same arrangement more bluntly: Soderbergh "was hired to direct the remainder of principal photography". It also notes that the nature of his credit is not yet known.
What has been shot so far
- May 20, 2026: second unit filming and a technical recce at the old Birkenhead Tunnel and St George's Hall in Liverpool, with GCPD vehicles and yellow taxis.
- June 12: principal photography begins, after several delays while Reeves worked on the script. Most of it is on soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, under the working title Semper Vigilans.
- July: more filming in the Liverpool City Region and on the Silver Jubilee Bridge in Runcorn.
- August 18: three weeks in central Glasgow, including the Broomielaw and the Kingston Bridge.
- September to early October: St Paul's Cathedral, then interiors at Queen Alexandra's House in South Kensington.
Eleven weeks of the shoot were scheduled at night. The story is set in winter, after the flooding of Gotham City.
Who is in it, and who Deadline left out
Deadline's reports list Robert Pattinson, Andy Serkis and Colin Farrell as the returning cast, as Batman, Alfred and the Penguin. The new names are Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Brian Tyree Henry, Jayme Lawson, Charles Dance, Gil Perez-Abraham and Sebastian Koch.
Wikipedia's cast list has one more returning star: Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, Batman's ally in the Gotham City police.
The crew has changed too. Erik Messerschmidt is the cinematographer, taking over from Greig Fraser, who could not return because of scheduling conflicts. Michael Giacchino is expected back for the score. Reeves wrote the script with Mattson Tomlin, his uncredited writing partner on the first film, from late 2022 to June 2025.
The director coming in
Soderbergh arrives with a record of his own, franchises included: Wikipedia counts the Ocean's films (2001 to 2018) and the Magic Mike trilogy among his popular successes, alongside Contagion and Che.
- 1989: his debut, Sex, Lies, and Videotape, wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
- 2001 Academy Awards: he is nominated for Best Director twice in one year, for Erin Brockovich and Traffic, the first director to do so since Michael Curtiz in 1938. He wins for Traffic.
- 2012: he announces his intention to retire from feature filmmaking.
- May 2013: only months into that retirement, he signs on to direct the Cinemax series The Knick.
He also works behind the camera in other roles. Wikipedia lists him as a cinematographer and film editor, and his other names include Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard, close to the names of his parents, Peter Andrew Soderbergh and Mary Ann, née Bernard. A director used to shooting his own films is now shooting footage for someone else's.
The first film is a high bar to match. The Batman, released in March 2022, grossed $772.8 million worldwide, according to Deadline.
What is still unknown
- How Soderbergh will be credited. Neither studio statement says.
- How many weeks are left. The studio says "final weeks", without a number.
- Whether Alfred has been filmed. Wikipedia says Serkis was expected to start shooting his scenes by the end of 2026, after The Hunt for Gollum.
- Whether February 2028 holds. The date was moved last time to give post-production more room, and post-production is the part Reeves is keeping.
The Batman Part II was first meant to reach cinemas on October 3, 2025. In October 2026, it is still being filmed, by a second director.