James Gunn Shoots Down George Clooney's Rumored Return As Batman: "Absolutely Not"

BYCole BlakePublished on February 11, 20232.6K Views

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 02: James Gunn attends the Warner Bros. premiere of "The Suicide Squad" at Regency Village Theatre on August 02, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

James Gunn says that George Clooney is "absolutely not" returning as Batman.

DC Studios boss James Gunn says that George Clooney is "absolutely not" going to be the DCU's new main Batman. Clooney previously served in the role for the 1997 film, Batman & Robin. Instead, Gunn says that they are going with a "new actor" for the caped crusader. Gunn addressed the rumors of Clooney's role reprisal in a pair of tweets posted on Saturday night.

Rumors of Clooney's return came when entertainment insider Grace Randolph published the theory on Twitter, earlier this week. "I hear that it's going to be a former Batman who cameos at the end of The Flash & could potentially stick around as the new permanent DCU Batman. Damian's Dad, Pattinson is still solo. I know who it is; but it would be uncool to reveal the whole thing," Randolph wrote.

James Gunn's Response

Further, Batman-on-Film's founder Bill "Jett" Ramey addressed the next Batman while responding to fan questions. He explained that he's confident DC will be going for an "older" take on Batman. The theory further gave fuel to the fire of Clooney's rumored casting. "I think they are going for an older take on Batman — older than he was in 'The Dark Knight Rises' (pushing 40) and 'Batman v Superman' (pushing 50). Late 50s is my guess," Ramey recently said. "Why? Because they want to have a very different version of Batman in the DCU than the one in Matt Reeves’ 'The Batman' films as played by Robert Pattinson. And since the Batman Family already exists, Bruce is obviously going to be older — which is fine by me."

The rumors come after Gunn recently confirmed that Robert Pattinson will not portray the Batman of the DCU, despite starring in The Batman. His take on the character will be exclusive to that series. The Batman Part II is scheduled to open in theaters on October 3, 2025.

David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, appointed Gunn and Peter Safran as the co-chairpersons and CEOs of DC Films, rebranded as "DC Studios." Together, they oversee films, animation, and television projects based on characters from DC Comics.

The Next Batman Actor

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About The Author

Cole Blake

Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.