After the success of The Batman, Matt Reeves sufficiently impressed Warner Bros. Discovery executives to get what might turn into his own universe. Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton are still in the running to be their own Bat-men in the DCEU. But The Batman was outside of the main universe, and now Matt Reeves has several spin-offs and related projects even as The Batman 2 is greenlit. Reeves has also recently signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. Discovery giving them first-look rights on all his work, so it seems the company is looking to invest a lot in this filmmaker.

Aside from The Batman, Matt Reeves is most well-known for the creepy vampire movie Let Me In (2010), and the Planet of the Apes reboots in 2014 and 2017. Now that The Batman has cemented his position as a class-A filmmaker, he has gotten a lot more work. Outside his new Bat-Verse, Reeves has signed on to produce several films, including Lift, Button Man: The Killing Game, Waystation, and an Untitled Sputnik Remake of the 2020 Russian sci-fi horror film. Things are looking up for Reeves’ production studio 6th & Idaho as it becomes supported by Warner Bros. Discovery, and writing begins on The Batman 2.

The Bat-Verse

     Warner Bros. Pictures

It’s only a rumor, but as Warner Bros. Television keeps ordering more shows, it looks like the Gotham City that Matt Reeves created in The Batman might be getting its own universe. After The Batman premiered to huge success, Warner Bros. Discovery immediately made plans for spin-off shows. At first, it was a series led by Jeffrey Wright as Detective Gordon called Gotham PD, but that ended up being scrapped. There is currently talk of an Arkham Asylum series, but little is known about it. The one idea that seems to have been gaining ground, though, is a series centering on Colin Farrell’s Penguin.

Currently titled The Penguin, the show would likely be exclusive to HBO Max, and Matt Reeves wouldn’t be involved. But fans seem excited anyway. The show could theoretically lead to more projects set in Matt Reeves’ version of Gotham City. Right now, IMDb only has one other Bat-project listed as being produced by Matt Reeves, and that’s the recently axed animated series Batman: Caped Crusader.

Aside from these projects, Matt Reeves’ production company, 6th & Idaho, is in a growing relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery. Recently Reeves signed a first-look agreement with the company, meaning that he’ll give Warner Bros. the first option to pick up any project he creates in exchange for financial assistance during its development. While this is usually a more exciting deal for the creative partner, Warner Bros. seems to be the happy one this time.

Michael De Luca, Co-Chair/CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures Group, told Deadline:

Other Projects for 6th & Idaho

     Archaia Studios Press

Matt Reeves’ other films that he’s producing are of a wide variety. Lift is a heist movie starring Kevin Hart that follows a female master thief who must woo her ex-boyfriend in order to steal $100 million in gold bullion while on a flight from London to Zurich. The film is filled with popular celebrities, including Vincent D’Onofrio (The MCU’s Wilson Fisk), Sam Worthington from Avatar, Úrsula Corberó of Money Heist, and Jean Reno from Leon the Professional. It’s currently in post-production and should come to Netflix at the end of 2022 or early 2023.

Button Man: The Killing Game is a movie about a group of millionaires that hire their own hitmen to kill each other. It’s based on the graphic novel by Arthur Ranson and John Wagner. Netflix hired 6th & Idaho to make the film in 2019, and while they still have the rights, the project likely fell apart during the pandemic.

Way Station will be a sci-fi flick about Enoch Wallace, who has lived, gifted with immortality, for 100 years as the keeper of a way station for intergalactic travelers on Earth. The Netflix film is based on a Clifford D. Simak novel that won the Hugo Award. While the studio has the rights to adapt the story, there has been little news since 2019.

The Untitled Sputnik Remake will be an English-language remake of the 2020 Russian sci-fi horror film in which a female doctor is charged with the care of a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious accident and returned to Earth with a strange organism inside of him. Though the film was announced last year, there has yet to be any movement on it.

6th & Idaho has the rights to adapt Mouse Guard, a graphic novel by David Petersen that is reminiscent of Redwall. Disney canceled the project in 2019, but the rights are still there. Though it seems many of these films are stuck in development hell caused by the pandemic, 6th & Idaho’s new support from Warner Bros. Discovery is sure to give them a new future in filmmaking.