About that DCU Batman movie rumor with Andy Muschietti — James Gunn clears it up

There’s been yet another twist in the saga of The Brave and the Bold, the DCU’s upcoming Batman film. In typical DC fashion, rumours started swirling online that the project had been put on ice—apparently the latest drama sparked by various studio shake-ups.

The Brave and the Bold would not be released before 2029 at the very earliest.

Rumours, denials, and a Threads firefight

Here’s what happened: filmmaker Dan Marcus announced on X that Andy Muschietti, set to direct The Brave and the Bold after his stint on The Flash, had told him DC’s new Batman movie was on hold. Marcus blamed all this on the current merger chaos between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance. He even tacked on an unverified casting rumour for good measure. Classic internet wildfire setup.

Fans pounced on the story, and soon enough, DC Studios boss James Gunn was drawn into the mix. Gunn responded directly to the claims on Threads, basically calling out the whole thing as nonsense. Here’s Gunn, deadpan as ever, replying to fans who pressed him about the pause rumour:

He wrote:

It doesn’t sound like something Andy would have said but the project is in no way on hold.

Oddly enough, Marcus doubled down, insisting his info came straight from Muschietti himself—at least about the production situation, though he admitted the casting bit was nonsense. He said Muschietti might not actually know where things stand until that studio merger is completely sorted out. None of that, however, lines up with Gunn’s steady line that no DC projects are paused due to merger jitters. In fact, Gunn’s already dismissed that idea elsewhere.

What’s actually going on with this Batman?

Let’s rewind a second. The Brave and the Bold first got its big announcement back in January 2023, part of the so-called ‘Chapter One’ relaunch of DC’s film universe. Muschietti was locked in to direct, with Christina Hodson coming aboard as the screenwriter at the very start of 2026. The plan? Launch a new Bruce Wayne on screen, introduce his son Damian Wayne as Robin, and reset Batman for the fresh DCU continuity.

The problem is, no one knows when this thing is actually happening. The timeline is still totally up in the air, mostly because another Bat-film, The Batman Part II, is still a going concern and aiming for a release in 2028. Gunn’s been clear: he wants to avoid a punch-up between two Batmen in the same year. He put it like this, again on Threads, saying he’d rather not “cloud the Batsphere” until The Batman Part II is out first.

So even with Gunn swatting down the on-hold gossip, there’s no release date, and not much hope of this new Batman film turning up in cinemas before 2029.