UK Fans Won’t Have Long To Wait To Watch The Batman

There can never be enough Batmans in the world, and that is definitely the case with the latest actor to don the infamous black suit of Bruce Wayne, Robert Pattinson, in the upcoming The Batman. This latest film won’t be a continuation of his recent predecessors, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck, and it won’t form a part of DC’s wider Justice League but will instead be a different kind of film and a very different kind of Batman.

In fact, Pattinson made sure to make it known to fans that his Batman won’t be the hero we’re used to seeing on our screens, instead wanting to focus on the fact that Bruce Wayne is a “very troubled person” and “doesn’t know if he’s that great or not,” as Pattinson told Jennifer Lopez during an Actors on Actors interview in Variety in November 2019.

The Batman will take us back to the Dark Knight’s roots and pick up the timeline in Batman’s second year as a crime-fighting hero/vigilante, however you want to look at it. Batman comes face-to-face with one of his famous enemies, the Riddler – played by Okja’s Paul Dano – as the Riddler leaves a paper trail of greeting cards across Gotham addressed to “the Batman.” And of course, we can’t forget to mention the much anticipated portrayal of Catwoman by Zoe Kravitz, who shared the first look at Selina Kyle on Instagram in October 2021. The cast also includes Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, and Colin Farrell as Penguin.

But how can UK viewers watch one of the most exciting releases of 2022? All the details on how to watch and stream The Batman in the UK are below for your viewing pleasure.

The Batman will land in cinemas first

To begin with, The Batman will only be available to watch in cinemas, with a UK release date of Mar. 4, 2022. As we slowly return to some semblance of normality after months (and what feels like years) of lockdowns, big budget films like this one are also making their return to the traditional ways of releasing films into the world. And when it comes to these large action superhero productions, an exclusive cinema release makes a whole lot of sense, as people tend to be more likely to want to see them on the big screen.

But The Batman will be available to stream not long after

It won’t be long after its cinema release that The Batman will be available to stream in the comfort of your own home, too. It will be available to stream on HBO Max on Apr. 19, just six weeks after its release in cinemas.

WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told Vox’s Recode podcast in December 2021 that he “feels really good” about their hybrid release model. "I feel really, really good knowing that The Batman, and Black Adam, and The Flash, and Elvis, and a whole host of other movies, are literally going to be showing up on day 46 on HBO Max in a variety of territories all over the world," Kilar explained.

However, it remains unknown when this streaming option will be available for UK audiences as HBO territories does not currently cover the UK. HBO does have an exclusivity deal with Sky, with many HBO titles available on NOW TV, but this doesn’t always extend to the bigger film releases. Wonder Woman 1984 was made available for UK audiences but similar strategies weren’t used for other large releases, such as Dune. I will however update this article as soon as more information is available.