Matt Reeves: ‘The Batman’ Will Not Be An Origin Story, Isn't Based On Any Particular Comic

It's been quite some time since we last heard about Matt Reeves' "The Batman." No, really, it's been at least two weeks. Regardless, ever since Reeves' film was announced it resulted in a continuous flow of rumors which always seemed to contradict the last report. The same kind of back and forth pendulum-swinging story.

For example, gossip and hearsay have swirled for months on whether or not Ben Affleck will be staying on as Batman in the DCEU.

It all started over a year ago when Affleck stepped down as director for the upcoming “The Batman,” which consequently left the job open for Matt Reeves from the “Planet Of The Apes” series.  Affleck has also been going through personal problems, coupled with the fact that “Batman V. Superman” was met with vicious reviews and it seems like the guy probably needs to take a breather. Of course, it’s hard to relax when Warner Bros. is counting on you to be their Batman. Through all this Affleck has explicitly denied retiring the cape.

At a TCA panel about the upcoming series “The Passage” Reeves  (via Slash Film), opened up about the progress he is making, Ben Affleck’s status, and is it an origin story?

“We are working on getting our draft [in] the next couple weeks,” Reeves said. “Right now, my head is totally into the script. Right now, I’m going to be leaving here to go back to work on the script.”

Reeves also stated that he would like for the film to be start production either “spring or early summer”. 

As for the elephant in the room: Ben Affleck. “We’re one piece of many pieces so I don’t want to comment on that except to say that I’m focused very specifically on this aspect of the DC world,” the filmmaker said. 

Jesus. So that means DC still hasn't decided on whether they are keeping Affleck or not.

As for whether or not this will be an origin movie, Reeves says that his script is not even based on a particular comic.  “We’re not doing any particular [comic],” Reeves said. “’Year One’ is one of the many comic books that I love. We are definitely not doing ‘Year One.’ It’s just exciting to be focused very specifically on a tale that is defining for him and very personal to him. Obviously we’re not doing an origin tale or anything like that. We’re doing a story that is definitively Batman though and trying to tell a story that’s emotional and yet is really about him being the world’s greatest detective and all the things that for me, since I was a kid, made me love Batman.”

“I’ve talked about making it a very point of view noir-driven definitive Batman story in which he is investigating a particular case and that takes us out into the world of Gotham,” Reeves said. “I went on a deep dive again revisiting all my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis. There’s no continuation of the Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”