“The Brave and the Bold script, I like where we are,” DC Studios co-chief James Gunn told me in an interview Friday. Gunn cautioned, however, that “plenty of things are in flux,” and gave me a cryptic response when asked whether Damian Wayne is even still in the movie.
Gunn previously called Damian Wayne “a little son of a bitch” and “my favorite Robin” back when he and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran unveiled the DCU’s Chapter One: Gods and Monsters slate in 2023.
Considering that The Brave and the Bold, as it was originally announced, would pair Batman with his son Damian Wayne, who’s about 10 years old in the comics, does that mean the DCU’s Bruce Wayne (and hence the actor who will play him) will be in his mid-to-late 30s?
“No, I think you have to wait to see the movie. Some things have changed. Plenty of things are in flux on what his situation is with his parentage and all that stuff, so I wouldn’t take any of it – Yeah, I mean, the actor who wants to… Listen, first of all, I can’t tell you the amount of big actors that have told me they want to be Batman,” Gunn said.
“I think you’d have a harder time finding actors who don’t want to be Batman. He’s the one character everyone wants to play. That’s the truth.”
I pressed Gunn for clarification about his remark about Damian’s “parentage” and asked whether Damian Wayne is still in the movie or not. Curiously, Gunn’s response was not a simple yes or no: “I think you have to wait to see exactly what’s happening.”
This isn’t the first time Gunn’s played his cards close to his chest when asked about Batman’s introduction in the DCU. Earlier this year Gunn conceded that “Batman’s my biggest issue in all of DC right now.”
Gunn told Rolling Stone in June: “Batman has to have a reason for existing, right? So Batman can’t just be ‘Oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,’ which he is. But because there’s a need for him in the DCU and a need that he’s not exactly the same as [The Batman director] Matt [Reeves]’s Batman.
“But yet he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really. So we’re dealing with that. I think I have a way in, by the way. I think I really know what it’s — I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality.”
DC’s Peter Safran said earlier this year that they will show the Brave and the Bold screenplay to attached director Andy Muschietti “when we have it in a place where we think it’s ready to go… and see if it’s a fit for him.”
While we await new developments on The Brave and the Bold, Matt Reeves’ Elseworlds sequel The Batman 2 has a finished script and begins filming next year.
For more on James Gunn’s DCU, read why that huge cameo in Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 6 “is consequential to the DCU” and learn Gunn’s thoughts on the importance of the color of Batman’s costume in the DCU.
