Update, August 6: Why could Ritchson pass on the Cowl but keep talking to DC? The Paramount merger contract explains the entire Batman stall: a multi-picture Batman runs through Ellison, while a single-film character does not.
Update, July 29: James Gunn has now weighed in, replying “De and bunked” on Threads when asked about the rumor that the DCU already cast Batman. Nobody has been cast, which is exactly why Ritchson could say no.
Alan Ritchson finally said the words.
At Saturday’s Reacher panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the Batman question came up again, and this time Ritchson did not go speechless. He addressed it head on.
“I feel like I have to address this, because it comes up all the time. I don’t ever want to lead somebody on to feel like maybe… I’ve had a lot of conversations with DC about what to do, because we’d like to work together. Never say never; maybe Batman is in the future, but I don’t think it is, because we’re having conversations about another character.”
“I just don’t think Batman is in the cards for me, as much as I would love to do it,” he added.
The moment came right after Ritchson told the room he is booked solid through 2028 and the panel moderator brought up Batman. CinemaBlend posted video of the exchange, which you can watch below.
From Speechless To A Statement In 48 Hours
Note the whiplash here.
On Thursday, Ritchson sat across from Josh Horowitz, went silent when asked if he is playing Batman, confirmed he has a character in mind he would not reveal, declined the layup to rule out the Cowl, and signed off the interview with a “detective” clue.
Two days and a few hundred headlines later, he opened his panel answer with “I feel like I have to address this.”
Also note the formula. The last time the Batman noise got this loud, back in August 2025, Ritchson told Variety: “I strongly don’t think that Batman is in my future.” Same construction, same escape hatch. “Never say never” is doing a lot of work in Saturday’s answer, and he still tacked on “as much as I would love to do it.”
The genuinely new piece of information is this: the active conversations are about another character. That is not a downplay. That is a disclosure about what is on the table right now.
What Is Confirmed vs. What My Sources Said
Let’s keep the claims separated.
On the record, from Ritchson himself: he has had a lot of conversations with DC, both sides want to work together, the current conversations are about a character that is not Batman, and he does not think Batman is in the cards.
Per my sources, as I exclusively reported: James Gunn wants his own bigger, older, darker Batman to separate from Robert Pattinson, that fight with Matt Reeves is why The Batman Part II moved to February 2028, and Ritchson is a frontrunner on Gunn’s list.
Those are claims about Gunn’s board, not about what Ritchson’s reps are formally negotiating. Studios do not call actors to tell them they are frontrunners. Both things can be true at once: Gunn wants a Ritchson-type Batman, and the conversation DC is actually having with Ritchson today is about somebody else.
And if you want a read on how Ritchson-shaped Gunn’s Batman board is, look at the other name that surfaced in the rumor mill last week: Landman‘s Mitchell Slaggert. As I noted on X when that rumor dropped, Slaggert looks like a cheaper version of Alan Ritchson. When the rumored backup is a budget copy of the frontrunner, the template is telling you something.
And remember who “DC” is about to be. Ritchson is booked through 2028. The Brave and the Bold has no director and no date. Per my reporting, the Paramount board wants Gunn and Peter Safran out once the merger closes, with Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy taking over. By the time Ritchson’s schedule opens up, the people he is “having conversations with” may not be the people running DC.
So Which Character?
He would not say, and nobody in the room got it out of him.
The public record offers some guardrails. Ritchson has previously said he does not want to play a clean-cut protagonist. He already played Aquaman on Smallville and Hawk on Titans. Names being floated in the aftermath include Orion, Hawkman, and Captain Atom.
File all of that under speculation. What is not speculation: DC wants Alan Ritchson, Alan Ritchson wants DC, and the character they are talking about is one nobody has reported yet.
Reacher Season 4 premieres August 12 on Prime Video, with Season 5 already in production, and Ritchson’s Motor City is in theaters now.
