From capes to consoles: Hollywood’s next franchise fixation is video games, says The Batman 2 co-writer

Superhero dominance had a monster run, but the wind is shifting. One of the writers behind The Batman Part II says the next big IP well studios are drawing from is... your game library.

Mattson Tomlin says the inbox tells the story

Mattson Tomlin, who is co-writing The Batman Part II with Matt Reeves, chimed in on X on July 1 after someone asked about the Mega Man movie he was once attached to. His read on where things are headed is pretty blunt: video games are the new obsession.

'Hollywood is sort of making a shift from being comic book obsessed to video game obsessed so I wouldn't be surprised if it sees the light of day in some form, but after so much time gone by, it's unlikely I'll have anything to do with it.'

He followed that up by saying he is getting 'at least 5x more offers for video game adaptations than comic book adaptations this year.' That tracks with what you hear from folks on the development side: comics aren't going anywhere, but the heat has migrated. After more than a decade of superhero brands driving box office and padding out streaming slates, studios are hunting for the next repeatable formula. Right now, they think it wears a controller.

Why this pivot makes sense

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie, A Minecraft Movie, The Last of Us, and Fallout have all pulled big audiences, making it pretty clear gamers (and everyone else) will show up when the adaptation hits the tone right.

Meanwhile, Gotham is still the day job

For all that trend-spotting, Tomlin's focus is still on Bruce Wayne's next very bad week. Work on The Batman Part II continues, and Colin Farrell says he's already read the whole script by Reeves and Tomlin. He was talking to ScreenRant while promoting Sugar Season 2 and did not hold back on the praise.

'I got to read from the first to last page, and it's really magnificent,' Farrell said, calling the sequel 'a really kind of dark and at times terrifying piece' that is also 'psychologically weighty and nuanced.'

If you loved HBO 's The Penguin, temper expectations for his screen time in the sequel: Farrell says Oswald Cobblepot only pops in briefly this round. So yes, the industry is leveling up to game IP, but Batman is still brooding, and apparently darker than ever.