Trailer Reaction – The Batman Part II

Matt Reeves understands Batman.

I’ve said this before. I’ll keep saying it. After decades of various interpretations — the Burton gothic, the Schumacher camp, the Nolan grounded realism, the Snyder brutalism — Reeves found something that felt true. His Batman is a detective. A damaged man working through trauma. A creature of obsession and shadow.

The teaser for The Batman Part II suggests he’s not abandoning that approach.

We don’t see much. That’s smart. It’s a teaser, not a trailer. But what we see is. Promising.

The Court of Owls. We’re doing the Court of Owls. Those masked aristocrats who’ve controlled Gotham for generations. The secret society Batman doesn’t even know exists. In the comics this storyline works because it takes Batman’s certainty — his belief that he knows Gotham better than anyone — and breaks it. There are shadows even he can’t see.

Robert Pattinson looks. Tired. Worn down. The Bruce Wayne in this teaser isn’t the angry young vigilante from the first film. He’s been doing this for a while now. The cost is showing.

Zoë Kravitz is back as Selina which. Good. Their dynamic in the first film was the best Batman/Catwoman relationship we’ve gotten on screen. Chemistry that actually felt dangerous.

The visuals are the same rain-soaked noir as the first film. Greig Fraser’s cinematography was half of what made The Batman work and it looks like he’s back. Everything is shadow and moisture and neon reflected in wet streets.

I don’t know what the plot is. The teaser is vibes only. But the vibes are correct.

Here’s what I’m hoping for: Reeves continuing to make Batman a detective story rather than an action movie. The first film worked because the mystery worked. Batman following clues. Solving riddles. Using his brain as much as his fists. That’s the version of the character I love.

I’m also hoping for more weird. The first film had moments of genuine strangeness — the Riddler livestreams, the Penguin’s laugh, the funeral bombing. Lean into that. Let Gotham be a city of grotesques.

Release is 2026. That’s a long wait. But if the first film is any indication, Reeves takes his time and that time shows on screen.

Court of Owls. Let’s go.