James Gunn Shuts Down DCU Batman Casting Rumors With One Blunt Fact

James Gunn has been happy to discuss some aspects of his new DCU, but the subject of casting seems to be shut down for the foreseeable future.

It is not so long ago that James Gunn noted on his social media accounts that he would not be spending a lot of time in future debunking theories and rumors about the upcoming DCU. However, it seems that is proving a little harder than he expected, as the writer/director once again has been doing just that on his Threads account.

This time around the rumors have concerned the casting of the DCU’s new Batman, who will reportedly not make an appearance again in the franchise until the release of The Bold and the Brave. So far there have been many names associated with the role, from former Batman stars such as George Clooney, to popular actors such as Keanu Reeves and John Krasinski. With so many rumors and fan castings littering the internet right now, it was up to Gunn to shut the whole thing down for the foreseeable future with one simple statement. On Threads, Gunn was asked once again whether there was any truth in new rumors about Batman casting, Gunn wrote:

"I don’t know what you’re talking about but we don’t even have a script, and there’s a strike happening, so, no, no casting.”

Naturally, with some major DC heros and villains about to be recast, there are many fans who just want to avoid the never-ending cycle of secrecy that surrounds such things and discover who will be taking on some iconic roles in the coming years. We all know it doesn’t work like that though, and for now, it seems, there will be no casting announcements coming for quite a while yet.

Related: James Gunn Hints That Two Guardians of the Galaxy Stars Could Be Joining the DCU

In the years prior to the Covid pandemic, the movie industry seemed to be in a rush to churn out films at a record pace, and audiences were more than happy to flock to theaters to see them. However, in the last three years, even with the pandemic now over, the Hollywood machine has been struggling to regain anywhere near the same level of success. With both writer’s and actor’s strikes in place, nothing is going to improve on that front.

For that reason, in line with Gunn’s comments, there is going to be a delay in the new DCU coming to fruition. It is certainly not the start that Gunn and Safran would have liked to their reign of the comic book franchise, and could yet involve further delays depending on how long the writer’s strike continues.

For now, only two of Gunn’s announced projects have had casts announced, including the voice cast for animated project Creature Commandos, and the primary castings of Superman: Legacy, which will see David Corenswet slipping into the Man of Steel’s cape in 2025. The wait for other casting announcements continues.

Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script. His love of dark comedy led to the creation of Grim Reaping, his first novel.