The Brave and the Bold Director Reveals the Real Reason Why Batman Is Not Coming to the DCU Anytime Soon

James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe has had an uneven start. Superman became the highest-grossing superhero movie of 2025 and a profitable project that filled fans with hope. However, Supergirl was a box office disaster, with a total haul lower than notorious bombs like Morbius and The Flash. Television has fared much better, with Creature Commandos and Peacemaker earning some of the best reviews in DC’s history, a trend Lanterns just continued by outdrawing the US premieres of The Penguin and It: Welcome to Derry to rank among HBO Max’s five biggest series launches ever. Yet looking toward the future, nothing is scheduled for theaters beyond Clayface and Man of Tomorrow, an unusually thin slate for a studio that has spent years promising Batman and Wonder Woman would anchor its future. Now, a new report explains why.

“I have no idea if this is true or false (I’m assuming it’s definitely false), but I did hear from Muschietti that all work on THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD is on hold until after the merger is settled,” columnist and filmmaker Dan Marcus wrote, responding to a fake Nightwing casting claim from the parody account Chaos Crave before apparently realizing what the account actually was. The comment is still relevant because it tracks with everything else coming out about Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. If Andy Muschietti really told Marcus that The Brave and the Bold is frozen until the merger closes, DC Studios’ silence on its Batman and Wonder Woman movies is a direct consequence of the deal hanging over the studio.

Can the Warner Bros. and Paramount Merger Derail the DCU?

Paramount Skydance agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $111 billion in February 2026. By mid-August, the deal had cleared regulators in nearly 70 countries, including the Department of Justice and the European Union. Despite that, the transaction remains frozen. A coalition of a dozen state attorneys general, led by California, sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds, and Paramount agreed to postpone closing until five days after a trial or June 2027, whichever comes first. According to previous reports on the merger agreement, the terms restrict new deals involving what it calls key property IP, a category that reportedly includes DC. Until Paramount signs off, Warner Bros. Discovery is limited in what new film or series deals it can actually make, and so is DC Studios. Marcus’ comments suggest Muschietti is aware of all that, probably because he needs to be aware of intended production schedules.

The merger restriction explains why Clayface and Man of Tomorrow remain on track while everything else has stalled. Both projects were greenlit before the merger froze new key property deals, leaving them exempt. Meanwhile, the Deathstroke and Bane film looked close to a greenlight in January, when Gunn teased a mystery DC project moving forward, but no official update has followed since. Other movies and TV shows were also cancelled or put on the back burner, with Gunn being uncharacteristically quiet about many projects. It makes sense if lawyers are involved and everyone at Warner, DC Studios included, must wait and see how the situation resolves.

That’s not the end of the DCU — at least not for now. HBO Max gave the Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) mockumentary series The People v. Gorilla Grodd an eight-episode order just one day after Lanterns premiered. Series orders appear to fall outside the same contractual restrictions holding back theatrical announcements, giving Warner Bros. Discovery room to keep expanding the DCU on the small screen even while its movie slate stalls. Leaning further into television is the best path DC Studios has toward keeping the brand visible until Paramount takes control or drops from the deal.