In one other life, we’d all be speaking about The Batman Half II this weekend. The sequel to Matt Reeves’ 2022 hit was first meant for October 3, 2025, solely to be repeatedly delay by the Hollywood strikes and different woes. It’s now coming October 1, 2027, and whether or not it lands that launch date or not, followers are ready with bated breath to be taught something they will concerning the movie. Will it introduce Robin? Are the Court docket of Owls the villain, or is it Mr. Freeze? Will the powers that be make Robert Pattinson the Batman of the newly launched DC Universe?
Demand for solutions escalated to the purpose DC boss James Gunn has performed protection for Reeves a handful of instances, at one level telling individuals to go away the person alone as he works on the script.
Rampant hypothesis and anticipation have all the time been a part of fandoms, significantly for superheroes. However it’s secure to say it’s grown into a bigger beast over time because of leaks and rumors from scoopers implying or outright stating what they’ve realized on social media, not often with anybody official pushing again on what’s going out and being shared by these keen to listen to any and all the things associated to their favourite factor.
Some discoveries find yourself being true, others wildly incorrect. Both method, they do their job preserving one thing within the dialog when the official channels aren’t doing what some would contemplate their due diligence and offering a frequent stream of updates. Any silence that lasts longer than a few days is an indication that the upcoming undertaking is washed and its creators have misplaced their spark or that it’s been quietly canceled.
There’s no level in pretending The Batman Half II or Insomniac’s Wolverine sport—which equally went with out years of any information earlier than being formally unveiled in late September, following the studio being hacked in 2024—would face quiet ends. WB and Sony are loud corporations, and if one thing of that stature had been gutted, we’d have recognized about it by now.
However the worry of them going away exists because of each corporations (and many extra) killing off initiatives like Batgirl, Naughty Canine’s multiplayer-focused Final of Us spinoff, and too many extra to rely. Relying on who you ask, the worry of not understanding one thing is coming is worse than understanding it’ll by no means come, as made clear by Hole Knight: Silksong turning into a meme because of its doubtful existence from 2018 up till this previous August.
After years of what followers would contemplate a feast of nice IP works—and the occasional nibble on respectable sufficient ones—this string of cancellations in recent times has left a way of resentment and betrayal of their wake. It’s one factor to see Leslie Grace in Batgirl’s Burnside costume and listen to that film was mainly executed earlier than its premature finish. It’s one other to get obscure concepts of what a sport’s developer is intending or see minutes’ value of footage at a significant showcase, as we noticed with Monolith’s Marvel Lady and The Initiative’s Good Darkish.
Between cancelled films and video games, information of the latter stings a lot extra because of the layoffs that comply with within the rapid aftermath and the post-cancellation information revealing growth was tough in some form or kind, or the developer’s mother or father firm wasn’t prepared to see the undertaking by to the tip. All of the fan love on the planet can work wonders, however it could actually’t do something towards “market circumstances,” crunch, or firms’ rising curiosity in AI.
On the finish of the 2010s, io9 wrote about how fandoms grew to become progressively intertwined with the firms that personal the IP they love. 5 years into the ’20s, and fandoms at the moment are seeing the backlash of that synthesis by being cursed with information. Many followers have taken it upon themselves to know all the things a few sport, film, present, or artist and find yourself spiraling ought to information not emerge or arrive with probably worrying implications. They should know who’s concerned with the undertaking from high to backside and the way it’s progressing in order that they know which creatives to rally help or disdain for, or if they should, shake these creators again to life if their pulse begins to fade.
The fixation on the issues to return, like The Batman Half II and Wolverine, won’t finish. We’re already seeing this with a TikTok creator’s alleged journey to Scotland to demand Rockstar North give extra data, put out a brand new trailer, and say one thing about Might 2026’s Grand Theft Auto 6: to be a fan of one thing is to always need one thing, then look ahead to the following massive factor on the horizon.
In that respect, Reeves and firm ought to take as a lot time as they want on Batman II—except one thing catastrophic occurs, it’s not like this epic crime saga is in peril of actually dropping its momentum or place within the superhero panorama.
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