Robert Pattinson broods and batters his way through new The Batman trailer

Robert Pattinson is appropriately dark and brooding and beating up bad guys in the latest trailer for The Batman, which debuted at DC FanDome this weekend. Directed and co-written by Matt Reeves, the film’s release has been delayed multiple times but will finally hit theaters next March.

As I’ve written previously, the original plan was to set the film within the DCEU, after the events of Justice League. But as Warner Bros. was rethinking the shared-universe model for its superhero films in favor of standalone films and franchises, Ben Affleck announced he was stepping down as director, and the studio replaced him with Reeves. Affleck would eventually withdraw from the project altogether, following his divorce from Jennifer Garner and a stint in rehab for alcohol abuse.

Reeves brought a very different vision to The Batman. He said he wanted it to be “an almost noir-driven, detective version of Batman,” focused on Bruce Wayne’s second year fighting crime as the Caped Crusader rather than once again retelling the character’s origin story. 

Reeves said that the plot would follow a series of murders, revealing the history of corruption in Gotham and how Bruce’s family is linked to that corruption. The classic bad guys—the Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman—are also in the early stages of their development into full-fledged villains. Reeves has cited Alfred Hitchcock as a major influence on the overall look and feel of his film, as well as Chinatown, The French Connection, and Taxi Driver.

Filming was paused in March 2020 due to COVID-19—dialect coach Andrew Jack died from the disease shortly thereafter—after a quarter or so of The Batman had been shot. And three days after filming resumed in September 2020, Pattinson tested positive for COVID-19, briefly shutting down production again. Filming didn’t wrap completely until March of this year, and the studio pushed the film’s release to 2022 as a result.

In addition to Pattinson, the cast includes Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Commissioner Jim Gordon; Colin Farrell (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin; Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) as Bruce Wayne’s butler and mentor, Alfred Pennyworth; John Turturro (Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski) as crime boss Carmine Falcone; Paul Dano (Okja, 12 Years a Slave) as Edward Nashton/Riddler; and Zoë Kravitz (X-Men: First Class) as Selina Kyle/Catwoman. (Kravitz voiced the character in The Lego Batman Movie.)

The first teaser dropped during last year’s DC FanDome, and the Warner Bros. CinemaCon panel this past August featured a brief sizzle reel of new footage. This latest trailer opens with the arrest of Dano’s Riddler in a coffee shop, although we don’t see his face—just the question mark pattern in the foam of his cappuccino. We get a bit more footage of Batman beating up street goons, some serious sparkage with Selina/Catwoman, and a fiery confrontation with Oswald Cobblepot. But it’s the Riddler who seems to dominate the proceedings, with an ominous voiceover: “What’s black and blue and red all over? You.”

In other Batman news, Warner Bros. dropped a short sneak peek of footage for The Flash film that’s been in development for a good 17 years. It’s loosely based on the 2011 comic crossover story Flashpoint, in which Flash (real name Barry) travels back in time to prevent the death of his mother and (oops) accidentally unravels space and time as a result. This new footage confirms that. Ben Affleck is rumored to reprise his Batman, along with Michael Keaton, who last played the Caped Crusader in 1992’s Batman Returns. Yep, we might be getting a multiverse version of the DCEU.

We don’t see the face of either Affleck or Keaton in this footage, but we do see Barry approach Batman from behind and ask, “Are you in?” And that does sound like Keaton in the voiceover. The studio doesn’t seem to have released the footage on its own YouTube channel, but a version is embedded below. You can watch the full streamed DC FanDome event here.

The Batman is slated for release on March 4, 2022. The Flash is scheduled to hit theaters on November 4, 2022.

Listing image by Warner Bros.