James Gunn confirms the DCU project in which this universe's Batman will make his debut

Looks like we now know the project in which the DCU Batman will make his debut: it is in his announced solo movie, The Brave and the Bold, set to be directed by Andy Muschietti. Thus, it looks like, despite a very brief glimpse, where we don't even see what the costume looks like, it looks like this universe's Caped Crusader won't be seen until his solo movie.

Not getting the universe's version of the World's Greatest Detective is definitely an interesting choice, because this strategy is different from the one followed by rival Marvel Studios. Furthermore, this strategy affords the studio enough time to find the actor who can embody this iteration of Batman the most.

This means that we won't get Batman in the solo Clayface movie:

On Sunday, June 22, 2025, a fan asked James Gunn on the latter's Threads account whether The Brave and the Bold was still the planned debut for the DCU Caped Crusader. To this question, the Superman filmmaker responded with a simple "yes". This means that it is only in the announced The Brave and the Bold movie that we will meet this version of Batman.

This means that the announced solo Clayface headlined by Tom Rhys Harries and directed by James Watkins will not feature the villain's nemesis. Moreover, a lot a fans believed that the follow-up to Superman might have included a team-up between The Last Son of Krypton and the Caped Crusader. His comment in the June 10, 2025, Entertainment Weekly interview read:

"What I'm working on is in some way…I mean, yes, yes, yes, yes. But is it a straight-up Superman sequel? I would not say necessarily."

This comment at that time was interpreted by many as the follow-up movie would feature a team-up between the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. However, given James Gunn's recent update, it might be safer to assume that we won't meet this universe's Caped Crusader until his solo movie. Considering the movie's script is still under development, it might be a while before we get more information about this version of the character.

Gunn also recently revealed that he is having trouble with the character:

Gunn sat down for another interview with the Rolling Stone on June 16, 2025, to promote Superman. In this interview, the conversation slowly shifted towards the solo movie headlined by The Dark Knight and his sidekick, Robin. Here, James Gunn told the interviewer that he was having trouble with the script of the movie. Gunn's exact words were:

"Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now, personally. And it’s not — I’m not writing Batman, but I am working with the writer of Batman and trying to get it right, because he’s incredibly important to DC, as is Wonder Woman. So outside of the stuff that I’m doing in the projects that are actively going, our two priorities are finishing our Wonder Woman and our Batman scripts."

While it is possible that things might change, and a team-up feature between this universe's version of The Dark Knight and another hero (likely Superman) is announced, given Gunn's update and his insistence on getting the script right, The Brave and the Bold will likely introduce us to this new version of The World's Greatest Detective.