Movies

Matt Reeves wanted to make 'the most emotional Batman movie ever' with The Batman

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Published on August 24, 2021 10:44PM EDT

The Caped Crusader is back once again, but not quite like you've seen him before.

New footage of Matt Reeves' The Batman debuted at CinemaCon on Tuesday. In it, the film's gloomy aesthetic is in full force as we see bits and pieces of a rainy Gotham thrown into chaos. Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne broods along the city streets. We get quick glimpses of Andy Serkis' Alfred, Batman beating up foes, explosions, police officers, and more chaos.

The clips were cut with behind-the-scenes glimpses and footage of Reeves and his cast talking about the film, which the director revealed was partially inspired by Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. "I felt that we've seen lots of origin stories. It seems things go further and further into fantasy, and I thought, well, one place we haven't been is grounding it in the way that Year One does, to come right in to a young Batman, not being an origin tale, but referring to his origins and shaking him to his core," Reeves said in the featurette. "You can have it be very practical, but I also thought it could be the most emotional Batman movie ever made."

And even though this is the latest of many iterations of the Dark Knight, Pattinson said the project felt different — and special — to him. "For some reason, Batman has always stood out as one of the major characters of the 20th century, and so many people connect with it on such a deep level for so many different reasons," he explained in the clip. "From the first conversation I had with Matt about it, I just knew that there was something radically different [here]."

Also in the featurette, Jeffrey Wright, who plays James Gordon in the film, teases that "Gotham is a character in a way that we haven't seen before."

The film also stars Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton/Riddler, and Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin.

Reeves told fans at DC Fandome last August that his film would follow the early days of Batman when he's "very far from being perfect." "One of the things that is interesting is learning how to be Batman. It's a criminological experiment. He's trying to figure out what he can do to change this place. He's seeing he's not having any of the effect he wants to have. That's when the murders start to happen... and it opens up a whole new world of corruption," the director said at the time. He also described the film as "a detective story, a mystery" that is also an "incredibly personal" journey with plenty of action.

After a string of COVID-induced delays, The Batman is slated to hit theaters on March 4, 2022.

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