The Batman Epic Crime Saga spans a feature film (2022’s The Batman), a prequel comic book (The Riddler: Year One), and a spinoff television series (2024’s The Penguin), with a sequel (2027’s The Batman: Part II) in development at DC Studios. Connecting them all is Matt Reeves, who oversees this expanding corner of the DC universe that is — at least for now — standalone, existing separately from the interconnected DCU under the purview of DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran. Now that The Penguin has wrapped up its Golden Globe-winning first season on HBO and Reeves’ Batman sequel has been pushed from 2026 to 2027, the filmmaker has one priority: the Dark Knight’s return.

“I would love to do more [spinoff series],” Reeves told MTV News, adding that “the thing we’re really focused on” is The Batman 2.

“We’re talking about doing the second season of The Penguin, but my big priority is to get The Batman 2 shooting and going,” Reeves said. “And then it’ll be exciting where we’ll go from there.”

Reeves also confirmed that production is scheduled to begin this year on the sequel, which will come five years after Robert Pattinson suited up as a year-two Batman in the 2022 film. “Our plan, and our hope, is absolutely to do another season [of The Penguin],” Reeves said. “We just have to come up with the idea that we think is the right idea, which is what we’re working on.”

While development on The Batman 2 is “taking longer than I would have wanted,” Reeves said, “I’m super excited about what we’re doing, so I really can’t wait to share that with everybody.”

In 2020, it was announced that Reeves was developing a streaming series set in the world of The Batman for HBO Max (later Max). Described as an “examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City,” the GCPD series from Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter was to launch “a new Batman universe across multiple platforms.” But Winter eventually exited the since-scrapped series, elements of which were folded into The Penguin (about Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb and his rise to power as Gotham City kingpin).

Reeves was also developing an Arkham Asylum series that was allegedly being reworked into a spinoff series focused on Barry Keoghan’s Joker, although Gunn dispelled those rumors. One thing Reeves isn’t ruling out, however, is a Penguin-style spinoff following Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), half-sister of the currently incarcerated Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti).

As series producer Dylan Clark previously told ComicBook, HBO is interested in Batman spinoffs for “marquee characters” like Farrell’s Penguin, who is confirmed to return opposite Pattinson in Batman 2.

“The streaming-cable space was was a no-brainer for some of the bigger characters. Casey [Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content] was the first person that said, ‘I need a marquee character,’” Clark said. “And Matt said, ‘You know, I have this really good idea for Colin for the second movie.’ And Casey said, ‘I want that. You can’t just have these characters be in the movie space.’”

Clark continued, “It was a natural transition that way, and I think we have some great ideas to explore more characters from our movie space to do this same thing with Casey and Sarah [Aubrey, Max original programming chief].”

All episodes of The Penguin are available to stream now on Max. Warner Bros. has dated The Batman 2 for Oct. 1, 2027.