So, The Batman. Is it happening? Will we ever see it? Is Ben Affleck second-guessing his decision to join the Snyderverse? It seems every time we talk about this movie another doomsday scenario (no pun intended) is right over the horizon. It did finally acquire a new director — Matt Reeves has officially signed on after a short little negotiating game — but production is still, as far as we know, halted.

Joe Manganiello, who’ll play villain Deathstroke in the movie, recently offered a bit of reassurance. He spoke to Robert Irvine Magazine (via Heroic Hollywood) about the project, and about how they’re all taking their time with it because they want to do it right.

Last year, I said May and that was my understanding. It depends. They have big plans for this movie. Whether or not we start exactly on that date or in June, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the thing: The creative process needs to be respected and no one involved in this film wants to make anything less than an unbelievable film, a legendary film. The movie will start shooting whenever those pieces are in place and we know this is gonna be something that we’re proud of. What we’re not gonna do is be backed into a start date, scrambling to get something off the ground just to get it off the ground. Everyone involved wants to make this the best film possible, so that’s really what it’s about. It’s funny how the media likes to run with, “Oh there’s trouble!” “Oh, the script needs to be revised!” They’re drama queens. There’s a creative process, and everyone on the cast and crew wants to make this the best movie possible. So that’s what we’re gonna do. When we start shooting it, we’ll start shooting it. It will be soon, I can say that. Here’s the thing: No one wants to create that superhero movie that’s polarizing to fans and critics. Rest assured, we’re gonna do this thing right.

Well, that’s certainly more reassuring than, “We’re starting now because we’re supposed to, even though hardly anything is in place yet. I guess we’ll just improvise.” There have been a lot of movies, comic book movies in particular, that have suffered from a protracted schedule due to starting production before they were ready. These movies are very big and very expensive, so surely Warner Bros. would rather everyone involved in The Batman take their time until they’re sure that everything is ready.

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