UPDATE Aug. 23: Now it’s reportedly coming from the director. Filmmaker Dan Marcus says Andy Muschietti told him all work on The Brave and the Bold is on hold until after the merger is settled, one day before Paramount and the states sit down for court-ordered mediation.
UPDATE Aug. 26: That report was walked back and Gunn said the project is “in no way on hold” — but the contract underneath it just turned up in a Supreme Court filing. Iowa and Montana told the Court that Warner Bros. is “frozen” and must “receive approval from Paramount for certain decisions,” with the result being “movies that are not made, risks that are not taken, and every decision hedged.”
We may now know the real reason why there is no DCU Batman and no Brave and the Bold.
It’s the pending Paramount-WBD Deal and what is in the existing contract between the two companies.
For more than a year, the DCU Batman search has made no sense.
A frontrunner emerged, dropped a detective clue, then walked away talking about playing somebody else.
A little-known actor from Landman suddenly entered the conversation.
And James Gunn keeps repeating the same line: no Batman has been cast, and the script for Brave and the Bold still isn’t finished.
Taken separately, every development looks random.
Put the Paramount merger contract next to the timeline, and none of it looks random anymore.
As I reported this morning, the merger agreement already gives Paramount veto power over DC’s long-term future.
No decision exposes that power more clearly than casting Gunn’s DCU Batman.
Why Warner Bros. Cannot Lock Down Batman
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the merger agreement restricts deals involving “key property” IP. DC sits on the obvious shortlist alongside Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
Warner Bros. can continue making deals, but those agreements can only extend two years from the merger’s closing date.
Anything longer gives Paramount the first opportunity to negotiate. Bigger deals may also require Paramount’s outright approval once they cross financial thresholds ranging from $30 million to $400 million, depending on the deal.
Now apply those restrictions to the biggest casting decision at DC.
Casting Batman means multi-picture options. No studio hires the center of a franchise for one movie. And what actor signs up to play Batman only once?
Those options would run for years, well beyond the merger’s closing date plus two years.
And here is the trap: nobody knows when the merger will close.
The trial does not begin until March 2027. Warner Bros. cannot build a long-term Batman contract around a closing date that does not exist.
That leaves the studio with two choices: sign a short-term deal Paramount never sees, or sign a real franchise deal with Paramount sitting at the table.
That is the entire DCU Batman search in one sentence.
The Batman Rumors Make Sense Under The Paramount-WBD Contract
Start with Alan Ritchson.
Ritchson sat as the frontrunner, dropped a detective clue, then ruled out Batman while saying he may be playing another DC character.
Ritchson headlines one of the biggest shows on television. A star with that leverage does not sign on as Batman without locked sequel options.
Locked sequel options are exactly what Warner Bros. cannot offer on its own right now.
A one-and-done Batman does nothing for Alan Ritchson. Another DC character built around a single-film commitment fits inside the contract without the same fight.
Who wants to bet that is exactly what happened with Ritchson? He realized that if he signed with Gunn, it would only be a one-picture deal, with nothing guaranteed. No sequels. No future appearances. No Justice League.
And look where Ritchson took his long-term franchise business days later: a first-look Netflix deal with a slate of features attached. Warner Bros. cannot offer that paper right now. Netflix can.
Then there is the Mitchell Slaggert rumor.
Why would a little-known name suddenly surface for the biggest role at DC?
Because an unknown actor signs the structure the studio offers, costs a fraction of an established star, and makes it easier to keep the deal below Paramount’s approval thresholds.
If Warner Bros. has to cast Batman under these restrictions, an unknown is the path of least Paramount.
Then there are Gunn’s repeated denials.
No DCU Batman has been cast, he keeps saying, and there is no reason to doubt him.
Gunn is not refusing to cast Batman. He cannot close a real Batman deal without Ellison’s side of the table — the same side my sources say wants Gunn and Peter Safran out.
The same limbo hangs over the other Batman.
The Batman Part II was pushed to February 2028, and as we exclusively reported, the delay was about Gunn, not Matt Reeves.
Every Batman Deal Now Runs Through Ellison
Here is what matters going forward.
The contract does not ban long-term deals. It stops Warner Bros. from making them alone.
Warner Bros. can still sign an actor to a multi-picture Batman deal — but Paramount gets a seat at the table.
That changes the meaning of every major DC casting announcement made while the merger remains frozen.
If a DCU Batman is announced with a real multi-picture deal before the merger is resolved, that contract went through Paramount.
Ellison approved it.
At that point, it would not simply be Gunn’s Batman. It would be the first major casting decision of the Ellison era.
Watch the deal structure, not the actor’s name.
The rest of the slate now reads the same way: Man of Tomorrow is filling up with cameo contracts, the only paper Paramount never sees, and there is no Justice League until Ellison says so.
Meanwhile, Gunn’s DCU fate could be forced into court paperwork before the March trial even begins.
The Batman search is not stuck because nobody wants the cowl.
It is stuck because the man who has to approve DC’s future does not run DC today.
