The Batman was almost as long as Zack Snyder's Justice League, according to a new report on the film's running time.
According to The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision newsletter, audiences may have had to witness another long DCEU movie, with The Batman originally clocking in at four hours.
According to THR, Warner Bros. held test screenings to gauge viewers' opinions of a preliminary version of the superhero movie and the film's running time. Last week, however, we reported that the final cut of The Batman weighed in at 2 hours and 55 minutes. Clearly, then, audiences (and potentially Warner Bros. execs) felt a four-hour Batman movie was too long.
If The Batman had kept its original four-hour runtime, it would have joined Zack Snyder's Justice League, aka The Snyder Cut, as one of the longest-running superhero movies of all time. The Snyder Cut clocked in at four hours and two minutes when it was released in March 2021, so The Batman wouldn't have been far behind.
Either way, we don't have long to wait for The Batman to finally hit theaters. The next DCEU movie will be released exclusively in theaters on March 4.
Analysis: Could We Get A Director's Cut Of The Batman?
Unsurprisingly, THR's report raises questions about the possibility of The Batman getting a director's cut: The Reeves Cut, so to speak, given that The Batman is directed by Matt Reeves.
Surely Batman, DC Comics, and moviegoers in general would be interested in seeing the content that was cut from the final cut of The Batman. After all, The Batman is one of the most anticipated movies of 2022. If it's as good as we'd hope, we'd definitely love to dive into another hour of its story.
If moviegoers want Warner Bros. to release The Reeves Cut, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The Snyder Cut is the obvious example: its release only comes after an ardent four-year fan campaign following the poor reception the 2017 theatrical cut received.
DC fans also appealed to Warner Bros. to release The Ayer Cut, director David Ayer's original vision for his 2016 film Suicide Squad. In July 2021, Ayer officially distanced himself from the Suicide Squad theatrical cut. And, despite attempts by Ayers and fans to persuade Warner Bros. to release The Ayer Cut, the studio has confirmed that it won't.
So could The Reeves Cut be released? It is very unlikely. Movie studios regularly hold test screenings of their upcoming films to see how audiences react to their character arcs, story threads, visuals (if completed), and more. Therefore, the rough four-hour cut of Batman was likely used as a barometer to see what resonated with fans from a narrative standpoint. Scenes that didn't elicit a good reaction would likely have been cut from the final cut of the film.
Bottom line: Don't expect The Reeves Cut to hit theaters. Of course, the deleted scenes will almost certainly be included on the Blu-ray and DVD releases of the film when they're finally released, but you can archive The Reeves Cut release as "it won't happen."