James Gunn Could Finally Take Batman Where No Filmmaker Has Taken Him Before

In 1989's "Batman," William Hootkins' Lieutenant Max Eckhardt is called to downtown Gotham City, where two thugs have been beaten to a pulp by the elusive and mysterious Batman. As they're wheeled off in stretchers, Eckhardt, in his weary and jaded way, mutters, "Let me guess. A giant, menacing, supernatural form." Throughout the first act of Tim Burton's 1989 masterpiece, Batman is seen this way by Gothamites — as some sort of cryptid or "winged freak," to borrow a line from Jack Nicholson's Joker, who "terrorizes Gotham's gangland."

Since James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-heads of DC Studios, there's been a lot of talk about how the pair might approach a DC Universe version of Batman. With Matt Reeves and his "epic crime saga" ongoing, and a planned "The Brave and the Bold" movie still on the docket, fans will soon be spoiled with two cinematic Dark Knights, an unprecedented state of affairs that will see Robert Pattinson's Batman matched by whoever Gunn casts as his DC Universe version (unless, that is, the DC Studios co-head does what many are hoping and brings Pattinson's Batman into the DCU).

With Reeves' movies embracing an unapologetically gritty and noir-ish tone, the obvious choice for Gunn is to go lighter to balance things out and differentiate the DCU Batman from Pattinson's. But that's the wrong move. The right move is to do the one thing that no movie has yet done with this iconic character — what "Batman" '89 only hinted at — and make him a downright terrifying horror-tinged cryptid that actually demonstrates what it means to strike fear into the hearts of criminals. And if Gunn and co. need inspiration, the comics have them covered.

Matt Reeves' 2022 film "The Batman" (which was basically a Gotham-set version of "Se7en") finally focused on one of Batman's defining features that had long been overlooked by the films: his detective skills. Now, there's only one big cinematic move to make that doesn't involve retreading previous interpretations.

Fans have talked about depicting Batman as a cryptid in multiple places, but this is not a new idea. We've seen comic book writers and artists embrace horror as a lens through which to tell Batman stories, from Lee Bermejo's "Joker" to the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones run, which at one point saw Batman literally transformed into a vampire. Similarly, the 1974 story "Night of the Stalker" is told from the perspective of the criminals and depicts Batman as a sinister predator lurking in the shadows. Even the seminal "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth" famously saw artist Dave McKean use surreal, supernatural imagery.

The films have been skirting around this idea for years. After "Batman" alluded to this view of the character as a "winged freak," Christopher Nolan returned to the idea with "Batman Begins" but never truly realized Batman as a terrifying figure, mostly because "Begins" was a PG-13 blockbuster. Ahead of Nolan's follow-up, 2008's "The Dark Knight," we started to see more hints that the director wanted to go darker when nightmarish concept art of the Joker was leaked. Heath Ledger's Clown Prince of Crime eventually was a chaotic, menacing, and unforgettable figure, but he wasn't anywhere near as scary as that concept art suggested he could have been. All of which is to say that the Batman movies have been circling this idea for decades, and now is the time to finally go for it.

James Gunn has specifically said of DC Studios, in comments that seemed designed as the antidote to superhero fatigue, "We don't serve just one kind of audience, so why make just one kind of film?" He also talked about presenting "a diversity of stories across a full spectrum of genres and scales from tentpole events like 'Superman,' to family animated fare like 'Dynamic Duo,' to indie style chillers like 'Clayface.'" That last movie is significant. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan wrote an R-rated body horror film with "Clayface," and right now this is the most exciting project on DC Studios' docket. What's more, it's the perfect setup for a darker Batman — and not "dark" in the Christopher Nolan, PG-13, use-fear-as-a-weapon way, but a truly horror-inspired cryptid Batman that delves into what it means to use the darkness against itself against villains.

In 1989, "Batman" star Michael Keaton was trying to discover his Batman voice, and in some compelling comments to the In The Envelope podcast, spoke about imagining Bruce Wayne as wielding a sort of "controlled psychosis" whereby "he probably ends up going into some deep, deep trance" in order to take the fight to Gotham's criminals. The actor even asked Tim Burton to shoot a scene where "you see me kind of in the eyes [...] go into this weird kind of meditation where I kind of disappear and lose myself in order to be Batman." The scene never made the final cut.

I think I speak for a significant section of the fandom when I say: Make this movie! Heck, give it to Robert Eggers. Prove that DC Studios really is the infinitely flexible storytelling machine it's been touted as, and give us horror Batman.