The Batman: Every Rumour You Need To Know

12. It Could Take Inspiration From The Long Halloween

Batman The Long Halloween Cover
DC Comics/Tim Sale

Soon after Matt Reeves was handed the job for The Batman, attention quickly shifted to what kind of story the director was looking to tell. It was rumoured for a while that it would focus on a younger Batman, but fans had no idea what kind of comics Reeves was taking inspiration from.

That was, until he let it slip after a fan asked that very question over on Twitter.

Longtime readers will no doubt recognise some of the stories mentioned above, among them Ego and the work of Neal Adams and Bill Finger. However, the first three selections - Year One, The Long Halloween and Dark Victory - all point towards a story about a Batman at the beginning of his career, and rumours since have indicated Reeves will be taking inspiration from one story in particular.

According to Kevin Smith, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween is the main source of inspiration for The Batman. Granted that very same book inspired elements of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, but given other rumours, it may just be that Reeves won't stop there when it comes to adapting Loeb and Sale's work...

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and the Golden Age of Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled.