DCU's Brave And The Bold Finally Takes Another Step Forward Amid Fan Uncertainty

There are two live-action Batman movies on the horizon. The first is The Batman: Part II, which is still on track to reunite us with Robert Pattinson’s take on the Caped Crusader in late 2027. Then there’s The Brave and the Bold, which will officially introduce the DC Universe franchise’s Batman following a shadowy cameo in Creature Commandos. There’ve been few updates on The Brave and the Bold since it was announced in early 2023, but today the upcoming DC movie has finally taken another step forward amid fan uncertainly about whether it would actually happen.

As originally reported by The InSneider, Christina Hodson has been tapped to write The Brave and the Bold. While it’s unclear how far along she is on the script, THR has a source that says she’s been “working on the project since at least the fall.” Another source claimed that it will a while before Hodson turns in a “definitive draft” of this highly-anticipated Batman movie since DC Studios is “taking a measured approach to its development.”

Of course, Christina Hodson is no stranger to DC movies, having debuted in this corner of the superhero space as the screenwriter of Birds of Prey. She followed that up with 2023’s The Flash, which featured both the Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton versions of Batman. Additionally, Hodson penned the Batgirl movie that was shelved in 2022, where Keaton donned the cape and cowl again, as well as an unmade Batman Beyond movie that reportedly “earned praise inside the studio.”

So for those keeping track, if Christina Hodson’s draft of The Brave and the Bold ends up becoming the actual movie, that means she’ll have written four cinematic versions of Batman, though we’ll never see how she handled Terry McGinnis unless that Batman Beyond script is revived. However, we evidently have a long wait ahead to learn if Hodson’s script is selected or if another writer is hired to do a rewrite. As James Gunn, the creative head of DC Studios, said just a few days ago, with The Batman: Part II beginning production in a few months, he doesn’t “want to cloud the Batsphere until after that.”

When The Brave and the Bold was originally announced, we learned that its Batman would team up with his son, Damian, a.k.a. the current Robin. Then in June 2023, it was announced that The Flash director Andy Muschietti would helm the upcoming superhero movie. However, last October, James Gunn seemingly cast doubt about whether we’ll still see Robin in The Brave and the Bold. Furthermore, THR’s writeup of the Christina Hodson news mentions that while Muschietti is still attached, whether he’ll stay that way depends on factors like time and availability, particularly following the success of his HBO Max subscription-exclusive series Welcome to Derry.

Still, I’m glad the The Brave and the Bold’s script is being worked on, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Christina Hodson is able to crack it so that we can hopefully get this movie before the decade is over. For now, The Batman: Part II is still slated for October 1, 2027, and Batman villain Clayface is set to take the silver screen spotlight on September 11 for his own DCU-set movie.