The Batman was neither extremely grounded nor a colorful comic book take on the (DC) world’s greatest detective. As a direct answer to both Christopher Nolan’s notable trilogy and Zack Snyder’s half-baked take on the character, Matt Reeves’ own approach to Bruce Wayne and his vigilante persona was gritty and slightly stylized, but its dark feet were still firmly planted in reality. According to him, that won’t change in the sequels.

During a chat with SFX magazine (via Deadline), the filmmaker, now deep into The Batman: Part II’s writing process, doubled down on the idea of toying with the comics’ rich mythology without going too fantastical, as James Gunn’s rebooted DCU continuity will be doing that anyway with Batman: The Brave & The Bold.

“What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythical characters that everybody know, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world. We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded,” he explained. Don’t expect Arkham-like takes on Clayface or Poison Ivy, to name a couple of villains, to pop up.

Sure, Reeves’ Gotham City largely looks and feels like the real deal from the comic books and video games, but after seeing what he did with The Riddler and The Penguin, who’s getting his own show this month, it’s hard to imagine this universe veering into unrealistic territory. By and large, The Batman felt like one big David Fincher movie that happened to be set in Gotham City and have some explosive set pieces, and I don’t see the reason why that would change after it made almost $800 million at the global box office and earned plenty of critical acclaim.

His comments arrive after an odd rumor that claimed Gentleman Ghost, a criminal who uses tricks and gadgets to appear to be a ghost, was going to be part of the sequel. Another big one that’s been thrown around for a while now is how Clayface could show up as a more grounded version of the character, yet some DC fans instantly imagined ‘Battinson’ fighting a mud guy, and that just wouldn’t gel well with what Reeves is going for here.

He directly addressed the Gentleman Ghost situation: “It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do. Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.” Maybe we’re getting a more realistic Mr. Freeze then? It’d be ice to see him in live-action again.

The Batman: Part II is currently slated to release in theaters on October 2, 2026. A script is being finished as we speak in hopes of shooting next year.