The Batman was neither extremely grounded nor a colorful comic book take on the (DC) world’s greatest detective. As a direct answer to both Christopher Nolan’s notable trilogy and Zack Snyder’s half-baked take on the character, Matt Reeves’ own approach to Bruce Wayne and his vigilante persona was gritty and slightly stylized, but its dark feet were still firmly planted in reality. According to him, that won’t change in the sequels.
During a chat with SFX magazine (via Deadline), the filmmaker, now deep into The Batman: Part II’s writing process, doubled down on the idea of toying with the comics’ rich mythology without going too fantastical, as James Gunn’s rebooted DCU continuity will be doing that anyway with Batman: The Brave & The Bold.
“What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythical characters that everybody know, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world. We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded,” he explained. Don’t expect Arkham-like takes on Clayface or Poison Ivy, to name a couple of villains, to pop up.