James Gunn is open to a Batman Beyond movie — the Spider-Verse team already pitched one
A red-carpet soundbite met a two-year-old pitch with four million views, and fans are connecting the dots faster than DC can.
First, the sourcing, because this one deserves a caveat up top. The Gunn quote comes from the Clayface premiere red carpet via ¡HOLA! USA, relayed through the DC Film News account on X — the original interview hasn't surfaced in full, so treat the wording as secondhand. As relayed, the DC Studios co-CEO said:
"I love Batman Beyond. So that's a great thing for the future."
— James Gunn, at the Clayface premiere, as relayed from ¡HOLA! USA
He reportedly added that the property started in animation and could make a good movie. No project, no timeline, no greenlight — an expression of interest, nothing more.
Don't miss: Clayface's first reactions are raves — its box office tracking still looks like Madame Web
Why fans didn't hear "maybe someday"
They heard "finally," because the pitch already exists. In February 2024, two Spider-Verse alums — visual development artist Yuhki Demers, who worked on both of Sony's animated Spider-Man films, and storyboard artist Patrick Harpin — went public with their animated Batman Beyond pitch, complete with concept art that pulled four million views in 24 hours. Warner's answer before the meeting, by Demers' own account: "there is absolutely no way we can do a Beyond movie." After hearing the outline, he said, "what started as a 'never' turned into a 'maybe.'"
The fan response to Gunn's soundbite was essentially a group memo pointing at that pitch:
«Didn't the multiverse Spider-Man people pitch one to Warner, who said 'lol no' ? Time make a couple phone calls»
— a commenter on r/DC_Cinematic
The thread's other recurring reply skips the history lesson and goes straight to the ask:
«Just greenlit that pitched Batman Beyond animated movie and we're golden...»
— a commenter on r/DC_Cinematic
The graveyard this idea has to climb out of
Batman Beyond has been almost-a-movie for a quarter century, and the body count explains the fan impatience. Boaz Yakin was attached to a live-action version around 2000; it died. Jeff Sneider reported an animated project with multiple script drafts by Daniel Casey, built to compete with Spider-Verse, before the Gunn-Safran regime change. A Michael Keaton old-Bruce project written by Christina Hodson was reportedly shelved after the takeover — and TheWrap's Umberto Gonzalez said that one was the Batman Beyond film. DC Studios has confirmed none of this.
Previously we wrote: Joe Russo picked Tom Holland as the last movie star — Beekeeper fans have a better answer
My position: DC doesn't need to develop an answer to Spider-Verse, because one is sitting in a drawer with the right team's name on it, and the audience reaction has already been A/B tested — four million views on spec art is a number studios pay for and don't get. If Gunn means even half of that red-carpet quote, this is a phone call, not a development slate.
Warner told the Spider-Verse artists a Beyond movie could never happen. Two years later, the man running DC says he loves Batman Beyond.