For months, our insiders have said James Gunn can’t use Batman in his DCU.
Now the big Dynamic Duo rumor making the rounds says the animated Robins movie counts toward the DCU, with one exception: Batman.
The claim comes from the Atlanta set account AtlantaDCFans: “RUMOR: We Are Hearing That EveryThing in Dynamic Duo Is DCU Cannon Except Batman.”
That’s the same account behind this week’s Man of Tomorrow rumors, including Viola Davis returning as Amanda Waller and the Matthew Lillard Flash speculation.
The same circle of accounts is also behind the claim that Superman wears a space suit in the Superman sequel.
The Characters Are Canon. Batman Isn’t.
AtlantaDCFans followed up to clarify the rumor is about the characters, not the story: “The Story we do not Know if it is Cannon This is mainly for the Characters.”
Superman Saga News summed it up the same way: outside of Batman, the voice actors cast in Dynamic Duo will play their roles in the live-action DCU, with it unclear if the story itself will be considered canon.
The account Cartier says its own info matches: “the info I got was for the characters being cannon in the DCU except Batman,” adding, “to clarify this is CHARCATERS ONLY.”
Per Jeff Sneider’s InSneider, the voice cast is Mason Thames as Dick Grayson, Logan Kim as Jason Todd, Lee Pace as Red Hood One, and Steve Buscemi as Red Hood 2.
Chris Pine is rumored to be voicing Batman.
Gunn’s standing rule for the DCU is that animation counts, with his voice actors playing the same characters in live action, the approach he started with Creature Commandos.
Cartier repeated that rule, saying the Dynamic Duo characters “will do what Gunn said which is weave in and out of animation.”
So per the rumor, Thames, Kim, Pace, and Buscemi all carry over into the live-action DCU.
Pine’s Batman would not.
Gunn’s own rule applies to everyone in the movie except the one character he needs the most.
Why Batman Is Off Limits, Per Our Insiders
Batman is the most valuable character Warner Bros. has, and our insiders say the studio doesn’t want a goofy Batman.
A WB insider told us at Comic-Con over a year ago that execs were worried how Gunn’s lighter, goofier Superman tone would translate to a character built on the opposite.
Then there is Matt Reeves.
As we reported July 7, Reeves pushed back against Gunn using Batman in Man of Tomorrow.
Following Supergirl finishing as the lowest-grossing DC movie ever, Reeves doesn’t want whatever Gunn does with the Dark Knight hurting The Batman Part II, which at the time was set to open just three months after the Superman sequel.
A week later, our insiders said the Batman Part II “delay” narrative was backwards, and that it was Gunn holding things up, not Reeves.
The very next day, Warner Bros. pushed The Batman Part II back to February 18, 2028.
The move put more than seven months between Reeves’ movie and Man of Tomorrow, which opens July 9, 2027.
Batman Stays With Matt Reeves
Dynamic Duo is itself a Reeves movie.
It comes from his 6th & Idaho company, and our sources say it and Clayface are Reeves projects that got placed under the DC Studios banner when David Zaslav handed DC to Gunn.
We’re also told Reeves’ Arkham series was also canceled when Gunn took over, but now at Paramount-WBD will get its chance.
Robert Pattinson is on the same page, as the actor recently said his Batman doesn’t fit in Gunn’s DCU.
Gunn’s contract expires in 2027, following the release of Man of Tomorrow. The Batman Part II opens February 18, 2028.
Now even the rumor mill has landed where our insiders started: in Gunn’s DCU, everything gets to be canon except Batman.
Everything we know about The Batman Part II is here.
