The Batman: Part II production comes to a halt as its director steps away to focus on 'family matter'

The Batman: Part II production has been put on pause as director Matt Reeves is dealing with personal matters.

'Production on The Batman Part II has been temporarily paused while Matt Reeves focuses on a family matter,' a DC Studios spokesperson told Deadline in a statement Monday.

The statement continued: 'Matt has the full support of DC Studios and we look forward to continuing the journey soon.'

Robert Pattinson plays the titular superhero in the sequel to the motion picture The Batman, which arrived in theaters in March of 2022 and made more than $772 million worldwide.

The smash hit film also provided a launching pad for The Penguin TV series featuring Colin Farrell. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Warner Bros. and DC Studios for further comment on the story. 

Also returning for the sequel are Farrell playing The Penguin, Andy Serkis in the role of Alfred Pennyworth and Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon.

Other notable names who will appear in the sequel include Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Brian Tyree Henry, Jayme Lawson, Charles Dance, Gil Perez-Abraham and Sebastian Koch.

The delay announced is the latest in a number for the film, which had first been slated to hit theaters in October of 2025 before being pushed to October of 2026, then October of 2027.

DC Studios co-chief James Gunn said in a Threads post in December of 2024 that yearslong delays were not uncommon among blockbuster film franchises.

'To be fair, a 5 year gap or more is fairly common in sequels,' Gunn said, listing off multiple examples.

He wrote: '7 years between Alien and Aliens. 14 years between Incredibles. 7 years between the first two Terminators. 13 years between Avatars. 36 years between Top Guns. And, of course, 6 years between Guardians Vol 2 and Vol 3.'

This past July, the release date of the film had been pushed back to February of 2028.

It was not immediately clear if the latest delay would lead to a change in the release date, sources told Deadline Monday.

Last month, Pattinson described the sequel to the superhero smash as 'so ambitious' in an interview with Collider.

'I mean, I sort of said the other day on something that the first one was a different take on a Batman movie, and this one is another,' Pattinson told the outlet.

He added: 'It's a real left turn from the first one, but somehow it keeps elements of the kind of feel of it. But it just feels really ambitious, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.'

Pattinson said that the script for the sequel 'is incredibly dense,' describing Reeves as 'one of those directors who it's really obvious that he has the entire thing in his head already.'

He added: 'It's unusual to be working with someone when you keep forgetting with little elements. There's so much in it that it's almost impossible to encompass the whole thing, but when you keep finding out, you're like, 'Oh, no, you know exactly what you want to do with this.' There's just something so cool about it.'