Matt Reeves’ The Batman has officially started production. Here’s what we know so far about the big screen debut of Robert Pattinson’s caped crusader.

And so The Batman finally begins.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. sent out an official press release stating that Matt Reeves’ The Batman has begun principal photography.

The Matt Reeves-directed Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson has felt like it’s been in pre-production for an eternity, with a behind-the-scenes shuffle of writers and directors followed by a highly publicized search for a brand new Dark Knight to step into the boots vacated by Ben Affleck.

However, the start of filming has finally arrived. Here’s what we know so far about the next big screen adaptation of Batman.

The creatives and the crew

The cast of The Batman gets a lot of understandable fanfare, but the creatives and crew behind the scenes deserve an equal amount of praise as well.

Though initially a Ben Affleck project, 2021’s The Batman will be both written and directed by Matt Reeves. Reeves is best known for his well-received Planet of the Apes films, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, as well as Cloverfield and the American adaption of Let Me In.

He also co-created, directed and wrote for Felicity alongside LOST and Star Wars writer/director J.J. Abrams.

Another notable — though not quite well-known — name joining Matt Reeves on the creative end of The Batman are Greg Fraser, the Oscar-nominated director of photography who has worked on Lion, Rogue One, The Mandalorian and will be joining auteur director Denis Villanueve on the upcoming Dune.

Given how stunning those films and shows are, we can absolutely expect The Batman to wow us when it comes to its visuals.

Composer Michael Giacchino will likewise reunite with director Matt Reeves on this film, having previously worked with the director on Cloverfield and his Planet of the Apes films.

This also won’t be the first time Giacchino has worked on a superhero movie, as the composer has previously worked on both Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man films, both Incredibles movies and the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The plot

In terms of whether or not this movie will be connected to the broader DCEU of characters and storylines which include Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam and the upcoming Birds of Prey movie, the answer is currently…unknown, though given that those films are tied to the Batman v Superman version of Bruce Wayne, it certainly seems unlikely.

In fact, very little is known and truly confirmed about the plot of the film at this time, though we’ve gotten a few rumors, a couple reports and some hints from writer/director Matt Reeves.

For the most part, everyone seems to agree that this movie will take place earlier in the timeline than 2016’s Batman v Superman, with most reports pegging it as taking place in the 90s.

Given that Robert Pattinson was cast as the caped crusader, we can basically confirm reports that the movie will focus on Batman in his younger years — though it will not necessarily be about Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was. Rather, this will focus on an established Batman still early in his career, rather than the grizzled, mature veteran that Ben Affleck’s version encompassed.

As to what the story might be, Matt Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview last year that his Batman tale will be “very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders…It’s more Batman in his detective mode than we’ve seen in the films. The comics have a history of that. He’s supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, and that’s not necessarily been a part of what the movies have been. I’d love this to be one where when we go on that journey of tracking down the criminals and trying to solve a crime, it’s going to allow his character to have an arc so that he can go through a transformation.”

The protagonists

Robert Pattinson will be the sixth big screen Batman to put on the cowl, following in the footsteps of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck.

Joining him will be Andy Serkis, known for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes trilogy. He will not be completely computer generated for once, as he is portraying Bruce Wayne’s trusted butler and only real friend Alfred.

Jeffrey Wright, known from his work in HBO’s Westworld and the Hunger Games films, will be joining the two as Gotham City Police Detective James Gordon. Given that the official press release for the film lists Gordon as Detective rather than as Commissioner, which is how many fans know of him, means we are definitely seeing Batman early in his career. In fact, Gordon’s promotion from Detective to Commissioner might become an integral moment in this movie or sometime in the trilogy.

Two minor characters that are part of the cast and are intriguing to fans are Peter Sarsgaard’s Gotham D.A. character Gil Colson and newcomer Jayme Lawson’s mayoral candidate Bella Reá. It’s was initially rumored that former district attorney turned villainous Two-Face Harvey Dent would be part of the expansive rogues gallery; however, none of the casting backs that up. Fans are hoping that ‘Gil Colson’ is merely an attempt to keep that transformation a secret, but we’ll have to wait and see as we get closer to the movie’s release.

Jayme Lawson, too, intrigued fans who were hoping that Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl might make an appearance in the film. However, given her character name and profession, it seems unlikely that Lawson is who we’re looking for.

The antagonists

Though her character is more antihero than antagonist and is Bruce Wayne’s longtime lover in the comics, I’m going to go ahead and put Zoë Kravitz in the antagonist category for now.

Known for her work in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Mad Max: Fury Road, Kravitz will play Selina Kyle aka Catwoman in The Batman. As it’s early in the Dark Knight’s career, it’s likely that we’ll witness the first meeting and interaction between the two, setting up what will be years of unresolved — then resolved — sexual tension.

For more traditional antagonists, The Batman has cast Paul Dano, from Love & Mercy and There Will Be Blood, as Edward Nashton aka The Riddler, along with Colin Farrell — a fellow actor in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and perhaps looking to redeem himself from his outing in Daredevil — as Oswald Cobblepot aka the Penguin.

The Batman will be released in theaters on June 25, 2021.