Draft:Untitled third The Batman film

The untitled third The Batman film is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman. Produced by DC Studios and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is intended to be the sequel to The Batman (2022) and The Batman – Part II (2026), and the third film in a planned Batman shared universe.

Warner Bros. planned for The Batman to be the first in a new trilogy of Batman films and to form a shared universe during development. A third film was in development by January 2023.

Background
Warner Bros. intended for the DC Comics-based film The Batman (2022) to be the first in a new trilogy of Batman films by May 2019, with key cast members reportedly signed on for future films by that November. Warner Bros.' parent company WarnerMedia was confirmed in September 2021 to be planning for The Batman to establish a Batman-focused shared universe separate from their other DC Comics franchise, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). In December, star Robert Pattinson said he had ideas for developing Bruce Wayne / Batman's character in further films, while producer Dylan Clark said The Batman would lay a foundation for future films to build upon. Leading up to The Batman release in March 2022, Pattinson and Reeves expressed interest in introducing Robin and featuring the Court of Owls, Calendar Man, Mr. Freeze, or Hush as villains in a sequel. The first sequel, The Batman – Part II (2026), was officially announced in April 2022. When announcing the first projects for the new DC franchise the DC Universe (DCU) in January 2023, DC Studios co-chairman and co-CEO James Gunn said any project that did not fit into the DCU's shared universe would be labeled as "DC Elseworlds" moving forward. This is the same as how DC Comics uses the Elseworlds imprint to mark comic books that are separate from the main continuity. The Batman writer and director Matt Reeves' Batman shared universe was set to be a part of this label, including a third The Batman film that had entered development by then.