Update, August 6: There is now a fuller explanation for why nothing is cast. The Paramount merger contract explains the entire Batman stall: Gunn cannot close a real Batman deal without Ellison’s side of the table.
James Gunn just answered the question everyone spent Comic-Con weekend asking.
On Threads Wednesday, a fan told Gunn there is “a lot of rumor circulating” that the DCU has already cast its Batman and asked him to debunk it. Gunn’s full reply: “De and bunked.”
So there it is, on the record from the DC Studios boss himself: no Batman has been cast, days after a Comic-Con weekend of nonstop Batman noise.
Why Ritchson Could Say No
Follow the timeline, because it now all clicks into place.
Last Thursday, Alan Ritchson went speechless when Josh Horowitz asked if he is playing Batman, confirmed he has a DC character in mind he would not reveal, and signed off the interview with a “detective” clue.
On Saturday, Ritchson told Comic-Con’s Reacher panel that “I just don’t think Batman is in the cards for me” and that his DC conversations are about another character.
And now Gunn says nobody has been cast.
Put those together and everyone gets to be technically truthful at once. If no Batman deal exists, then Ritchson is not cast as Batman. Nobody is. “Not in the cards” is literally accurate when no cards have been dealt.
Because being a frontrunner is not being cast. As I exclusively reported, Ritchson is a frontrunner on Gunn’s board for a bigger, older, darker Batman. That is a claim about Gunn’s wish list, not a signed contract. Gunn’s “de and bunked” does not touch that reporting. It confirms the part that matters: the seat is still open.
The Arjona Parallel
This exact dance already played out once at Comic-Con.
As I exclusively reported, Adria Arjona is Wonder Woman in Man of Tomorrow. At Comic-Con, Arjona would not deny it, saying “I’m with family.” And she also revealed she has not filmed anything yet.
So why hasn’t Wonder Woman shot a single frame of a movie that has been filming since April? Per my insiders, because these are cameo roles, added late to a movie that keeps adding them. The cameo pile keeps growing, and Frank Grillo is back shooting seven weeks after he publicly wrapped.
Cameos get written, locked, and shot at the end. Which is why an actor can honestly say nothing is filmed, and a studio boss can honestly say nothing is cast, while my sources say the plan is exactly what it looks like.
Debunked Today Is Not Debunked At Wrap
One more thing to keep in mind here.
Per my reporting, Gunn’s own camp has been seeding the Batman leaks to justify getting Batman, or some sort of cameo, into Man of Tomorrow, and the Paramount board wants Gunn and Peter Safran out once the merger closes.
And the calendar already backs this up. As I reported in mid-July, Matt Reeves has been concerned about what Gunn is going to do with Man of Tomorrow. The very next day, Warner Bros. moved The Batman Part II to February 18, 2028, putting Reeves’ movie even further from Gunn’s.
If the Batman cameo happens, it gets locked late and announced on Gunn’s timeline, not the rumor mill’s. “De and bunked” today tells you where things stand on a Wednesday in July. It does not tell you where they stand at wrap.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow hits theaters July 9, 2027.
