And the drama continues. Once Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released and chugging along in theaters, Warner Bros. and DC looked to what came next, with one of them being The Batman. The only problem is that from the get-go, the film has gone through some major hills and valley’s, with the latest quite possibly being the nail in the coffin.

Let’s go all the way back to the beginning. Ben Affleck was originally suppose to direct, then not. From there he was still attached as a writer, then not. Fast forward and Matt Reeves was signed on to direct, then not, then brought back again as the official director moving forward. Before today, the most recent rumors floating around have been whether or not Ben Affleck would even continue under the cape and cowl, but that doesn’t seem to be the scare anymore.

From the moment WB and DC dropped their extended universe slate a few years ago, we’ve all assumed that every film moving forward would be a part of a much larger universe. But were we mistaken? It’s been reported that when Reeves was brought on board, he basically scrapped Affleck and co-head of DC Films Geoff Johns script, where he then continued to create his own vision of a noir-driven detective Batman movie. While that may be the case, here’s what Reeves recently said about the film overall and his initial meeting with WB to radio station KRCW:

“Well I have a vision for a way to do something with that character [Batman] that feels like it resonates with me personally, and a perspective that can grow out into other things. When they [Warner Bros.] approached me, what they said was ‘look, it’s a standalone, it’s not part of the extended universe.’”

Before we all start lighting the DCEU movies on fire, there’s many ways these words can be read. One is that the film will be a complete standalone, outside of the DCEU. He’s said how excited he is to make his own Batman trilogy, possibly similar to Christopher Nolan, which was inside of its own personal universe. Or maybe it could just mean that the film won’t be subjected to DCEU connections and cameos, a la Guardians of the Galaxy, which was still connected to the larger MCU but stuck to its now rules.

To be quite honest, before yesterday, my mouth would’ve hit the floor with shock that this movie wouldn’t take place inside the DCEU. But after yesterday’s news of a standalone Joker origin movie, I’m not all that surprised. I guess the biggest questions moving forward are these: What does Matt Reeves mean by “standalone”? If it is in fact outside of the continuity, what does this mean for the DCEU? And if it is independent, could the most recent rumors of Ben Affleck not starring very much be the case? Whatever case it may be, the WB and DC have some big questions to answer in the coming months.

What do you think? Could The Batman really be outside the DCEU? Do you want to see that? Will it include Ben Affleck? Where does the DCEU go from here if it isn’t part of the universe?