Why The Batman director doesn’t think he could direct a Marvel movie

The Batman is finally out in theaters, and it’s pleasing critics and audiences alike. Has DC finally found a movie that can penetrate the popular consciousness like Marvel has with its tidal wave of MCU films?

Admittedly, that’s not really a fair question to ask, but given the decades-long rivalry between Marvel and DC, it’s hard not to think of it. Still, the two studios are doing different things with their movies, with Marvel erring a bit more on the family-friendly side of things and DC allowing the filmmakers to get a bit more grim and gritty. And that’s why The Batman director Matt Reeves, at least, can’t see himself ever working for Marvel.

“I have such respect for Kevin Feige and also for the [Marvel] filmmakers,” Reeves told Variety. “But to be honest with you, I just don’t know how I would make my way through that. There has to be some level of discovery for me, where I have some freedom to find my way. If I have to come into something that’s already set too firmly, then I think I would get lost. And I don’t think they would be happy with me either.”

That said, Reeves is making a Batman movie, and Batman has a long history one could definitely say is set “firmly.” That’s just the name of the game, these days, no matter which studio you’re working for. “The industry has changed so dramatically that if you’re going to make a movie that’s going to be in movie theaters, you’re not making anything that isn’t recognizable IP,” Reeves said. “That’s just where the audience has gone. I’m not saying that I’m happy about that. I’m just saying it is what it is.”

HBO Max is making a Batman spinoff series that “connects to Arkham”

Warner Bros. may have given Reeves more freedom to make The Batman than he would have had at another studio, but they’re still taking a page from Marvel’s playbook and using the new movie as a launchpad for an interconnected universe. There are already plans for an HBO Max series revolving around Colin Farrell’s take on the Penguin, for example.

“This is the beginning of this world and there are all these places we can go with these characters,” Reeves told the Toronto Sun. “And with this cast that came and brought such vivid life [to it]. We’re doing this Penguin … Colin Farrell is like you’ve never [seen] in this movie. He’s incredible and he actually is sort of a scene-stealer because he’s just so funny, he’s just so great. Along the way, we thought, ‘Oh, well maybe we can do this as a series.’ And when I talked to HBO Max, I showed them Colin in the movie and I talked to them about what this could be. And they were like, ‘Let’s do that.’ So we’re doing that and we’re doing another series that connects to Arkham.”

We also know they’re making a spinoff series about the Gotham City police department. It’s unclear if that’s what Reeves means when he talks about a show that “connects to Arkham,” or if that’s something else entirely.

Andy Serkis does does his Gollum voice from The Lord of the Rings…as Vladimir Putin

The cast members are out there promoting The Batman too. For instance, Andy Serkis plays Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler. He went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to hype up The Batman…although if we’re being honest, the best part of the interview had nothing to do with the movie; it was when Serkis voiced a bunch of characters from The Lord of the Rings, even returning to his famous Gollum voice…although he doesn’t use it in quite the way we were expecting. Skip to the end of the clip below to see what we mean:

Who’s to say that Vladimir Putin doesn’t talk like that when he looks in the mirror in the morning?

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