The Batman movie bumped to late 2021 over pandemic delays

The latest installment in DC's Batman movie franchise has had its theatrical premiere date bumped to late 2021 over delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The theatrical film is simply titled The Batman and it stars Robert Pattison in its lead role as Bruce Wayne. The team behind the movie managed to shoot around one-quarter of the footage before production was paused.

The coronavirus pandemic has halted production on hundreds of TV shows and movies, impacted movies that premiered in theaters right before widespread theater closures, and has delayed plans to premiere other movies that were scheduled for release in the near future.

Looking farther into the future, more movies will be delayed into 2021 — even if theaters are open by that time (and they likely will be), more time will be needed to wrap up production on the movies that are currently paused. For that reason, Warner Bros. has bumped the release date for The Batman from summer 2021 to October 2021, according to Deadline.

According to the report, around a quarter of the film for the movie was shot before the production freeze; once things resume, the team plans to finish shooting the film in London. In addition, the release of Shazam 2! has been bumped from April 1, 2022 to November 4, 2022. It's not all bad news, however.

The release of The Flash — the movie version, that is — is now scheduled to premiere in theaters in early June instead of early July in 2022, according to Deadline, though such distant dates are at risk of changing again in the future. Other delayed movies include the Many Saints of Newark, King Richard, and an untitled Tom Hanks movie about Elvis Presley.