Although Matt Reeves has his Batman sequel ready to go into production in March, James Gunn has decided that it was a good idea to work on a separate Caped Crusader movie for his DCU. A few years ago, Gunn hired Andy Muschietti to direct this Batman movie, titled “The Brave and the Bold,” for DC Studios.
The problem is that having two Batmen occurring simultaneously may not be the best commercial move. It doesn’t help that Muschietti directed “The Flash,” a film that lost more than $150M for Warner Bros. and was panned by critics upon release. Gunn hired Muschietti before audiences had seen “The Flash,” so, as you can imagine, he’s in a bit of a conundrum here.
Then again, this latest update on “The Brave and the Bold” is even more puzzling.
For months now, James Gunn has been trying to keep it a secret who is writing “The Brave and the Bold,” but The InSneider dug deep into its sources and found a name: Christina Hodson.
That’s right—Hodson, who wrote “The Flash,” “Birds of Prey,” “Bumblebee,” and the shelved “Batgirl,” has somehow managed to find herself bearing the responsibility of penning the next Batman iteration for the DCU. She was part of Gunn’s early DCU brain trust, but given her wobbly track record, many this morning are wondering whether she’s a good fit for the important task at hand.
Gunn reportedly wanted to keep Hodson’s hire a secret, shielding her from the public pressure that comes with writing a Batman movie. Alas, her name has now leaked, and judging by some of the reactions from DCU fanboys, it’s easy to understand why Gunn wanted to keep her involvement hush-hush.
For Gunn and Hodson, the challenge is clear: how do you introduce yet another version of the Caped Crusader into a cinematic landscape already saturated with him—without falling into parody, redundancy, or irrelevance?
That said, Gunn previously claimed he’s found “a way in”—a fresh perspective on the character that doesn’t retread old ground but still honors what makes Batman compelling. It’s just a matter of executing that vision alongside Hodson, with whom he’s working closely.
At the end of the day, Gunn is facing what might be the most high-stakes creative decision in modern franchise filmmaking: reinventing a character that has already been reinvented to death.
While Hodson is currently working on “The Brave and the Bold,” she recently wrote and completed two scripts, both bound to enter production in the next year or two. These include an untitled firefighter movie, set to be directed by Ron Howard and starring Glen Powell, as well as “Fast X: Part 2,” which may or may not need to be rewritten.