Each of the five announced and currently upcoming Batman movies are exciting in their own way – but some have more hype built around them than others. Batman’s movie roster has made billions over the course of its history, and not undeservedly, since many of the best and most impactful DC films feature the Caped Crusader.
Unsurprisingly, this means there is much incentive to make further movie releases centered around the Dark Knight and his world. Right now, there are five announced and upcoming DC movies centered around Batman and his closest allies and enemies, which collectively paint an extensive and imaginative future for one of the most beloved superheroes of all time.
Aztec Batman: Clash Of Empires
As an animated Elseworlds Batman story that appears to be less tied to the main DCU or its more popular offshoots, Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires is the upcoming Dark Knight movie with the least current hype simply because fewer people comparatively know that it exists, as is unfortunately common for animated films.
Aztec Batman offers an interesting reimagination of Batman lore by bringing forward a version of Batman who exists in 1500s Mesoamerica – akin to the way Gotham by Gaslight provided a steampunk comic imagining of the hero. However, this does suggest it will be more of a one-shot experience, much in the way most of these stories tend to be.
The release of the Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires trailers also received some divided responses, both from those who didn’t mesh with the art style and animation style the upcoming film employs, and from those unsure about how the release will handle the changes it makes to the conventional Batman mythos.
That said, the history of the Elseworlds comics paint a promising picture for the movie in terms of it providing an exciting and fresh take on the beloved DC hero, and many of the characters most closely associated with him. Thanks to its September 2025 release date, we’ll soon know exactly how the movie fares upon its release.
Dynamic Duo
Dynamic Duo is another announced Batman spinoff movie currently impending on DC’s film slate. While the name may suggest to savvy Batman fans that the film will be about Batman and Robin, it’s actually reportedly set to be about Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, who are traditionally the first and second characters to hold the Robin title in the comics.
Currently, much of the intrigue around Dynamic Duo revolves around the fact that it’s not clear whether it’s a part of the DC Universe timeline, or a DCU Elseworlds story set in a different world. If Dynamic Duo ends up being in the first category, its debut of two different major DCU Batman characters will be huge for the franchise.
Either way, though, Dynamic Duo has some unique appeal in terms of the distinctive path it already seems set to take in terms of its visuals. Swaybox Studios are set to produce the film, and to employ a fascinating combination of stop-motion animation, puppetry, and CGI in order to make a movie that looks and feels different and distinct.
Though the lack of details known about Dynamic Duo also works against it to some degree in terms of building hype, it’s likely this will change in the lead up to its release date, which is currently set for June 2028. With the film’s debut currently years away, though, there are a number of other movies to be more excited about until then.
Clayface
Clayface is a unique entity even when compared to its fellow upcoming Batman movie spinoffs. As an R-rated horror thriller centered around the story of one of Batman’s more historically underrated foes, it’s fair to say the film is entering entirely new territory in many ways, which makes it especially exciting conceptually.
The results of prior villain-focused Batman movie spinoffs works for and against Clayface in terms of building hype for the project. Joker’s critical and commercial success – garnering over $1 billion in its worldwide box office – certainly suggests there’s a lot of promise in the upcoming release, especially given it also appears to be a more adult project.
That said, both Joker: Folie à Deux and Catwoman suggest that spinoffs centered around these kinds of figures can be something of a risk without the presence of the Dark Knight to balance and ground them to some degree. As such, it’s understandable that many currently have more reserved opinions about Clayface’s prospects until more is known about the film.
With Batman movies tending to cover a lot of the same ground in decades past, the fact the DCU is taking a more daring and different approach with Clayface is undeniably exciting, even if this is perhaps also something of a risk. Either way, a horror movie about someone being transformed into a clay-like creature should prove interesting whatever happens.
The Batman 2
In many ways, it’s hard to overstate the level of hype that has built for The Batman 2. The Batman captured fan attention in a major way – cementing Robert Pattinson as both a legitimate and exciting casting for the role of the Dark Knight – and The Batman’s ending immediately opened questions about what a sequel story could look like.
Recent history has only made this concept seem even more tantalizing, as The Penguin spinoff show – set in the same universe and exploring Oz Cobb’s rise to power in the aftermath of The Batman – provided further setup for the sequel’s story while also being one of the most well-received and well-regarded superhero shows of all time.
That said, the project’s delays have stymied its overall hype a little, with the sequel set to originally release in October 2025, before being pushed back to 2026, and then 2027. Though this means there’s a longer wait for the film, these extensions have all made sense in terms of ensuring the upcoming release is as strong as possible.
With The Batman 2 now on the way to starting production in earnest, it’s almost guaranteed that early sneak peeks and teases about the film will further ignite fan hype and hopes in a major way. Until then, though, it does seem one other Batman movie holds the crown in terms of overall hype, despite being seemingly further away.
The Brave & The Bold
While The Batman 2 is extremely exciting in terms of continuing Matt Reeves’ iconic DC movie world, The Brave & The Bold is exciting in terms of kickstarting the story of a new live-action Batman for the DC Universe. Since the DCU is set to be a colossal interconnecting cinematic world, this is a huge deal on several levels.
Discussions about the potential DCU Batman casting alone have been rampant ever since the franchise was first introduced to audiences, especially since the DCU will need not just a Batman who works by himself on-screen, but also one who could feasibly work perfectly alongside all DC’s other heroes, and among the larger Bat-family.
If The Brave & The Bold is a success, then it seems – given the DCU’s focus on balancing big names with less well-known DC characters – that Batman’s mythos could be brought to screens in a way never seen before, and with a depth and breadth that it previously seemed we may perhaps never get to experience on-screen.
Naturally, this sets a pretty high bar for the Batman movie, but one that is well worth trying to reach given what it would mean for The Brave & The Bold and the DCU. Though The Brave & The Bold’s release date isn’t yet known, its debut is sure to change the DC movie landscape in a colossal way.
