The Batman age rating, UK release date and more

There’s something special about the caped crusader on the big screen and we’ve been given a whole new take on the character with The Batman, which arrived in cinemas recently with its 2022 UK release date (details below). You can find out everything you need to know about the latest Dark Knight film below, including the age rating certificate in our parents guide section, as well as the story, cast and runtime.

The plot sees a Bruce Wayne in a past setting without the same level of modern technology as we’ve had in the previous four or five iterations of Batman and this time it’ll be Robert Pattinson (The Lost City of Z) in the title role. He’s fairly early in his career as the crime fighting personification of vengeance and he’s about to face his toughest foe yet as the city gets wracked by the twisted might of the Riddler.

It looks set to be a big departure from previous performances of the enigmatic villain, with the likes of Jim Carey and Frank Gorshin bringing a lot of comedy to the role. However, this time it’s Paul Dano (12 Years A Slave) playing the part and from the look of the trailer he’s going to be ditching the tongue-in-cheek portrayal in favour of genuine menace, malice and monstrous revenge of his own.

Cast

With Robert Pattinson and Paul Dano in the roles of Batman and Riddler, you’d think that there wasn’t much to say about the rest of the cast, but clearly DC Films is throwing everything at The Batman. For a starters, the film also includes Catwoman / Selena Kyle, played by Zoë Kravitz (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), who also voiced the role in The Lego Batman Movie.

They’re joined by Jeffrey Wright (No Time To Die) as James Gordon, John Turturro (Transformers: The Last Knight) as Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis (Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage) as Alfred and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen) as Penguin.

We’ll update you with more details about the cast as they’re confirmed.

The Batman (2022) UK release date

Despite a number of delays, The Batman had its UK release date on Friday the 4th March 2022, so it’s bound to be one of the must see films over Easter. It came out in the US and Canada on the same date, so there shouldn’t be too much information about the plot to avoid ahead of the release.

Nothing much else came out on the same weekend, so it should be an easy route to the number 1 spot at the UK, US and Canada box office. Reviews have been fairly positive for the new incarnation of Bruce Wayne and his Dark Knight vigilante persona, so that should add to its success over the holiday.

With the March 2022 release on the big screen, it should come out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital in the UK around July 2022, which will be just in time for the summer home entertainment market. There’s no word as of yet in terms of when it will stream though.

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You can also see more on the The Batman in the run up to the release with the Warner Bros Twitter page at https://twitter.com/WarnerBrosUK.

Age rating certificate and parents guide

The official UK age rating for The Batman was confirmed by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as the release date approached. It has been given a 15 certificate, which is older than The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, both 12, but in line with Justice League which also had a 15 certification.

In terms of the parents guide notes, there’s some fairly robust violence and threat to take into account. Robert Pattinson’s Bat really goes for it in hand-to-hand combat, and there’s a whole lot more more action in the film.

If that isn’t enough, the higher certification would have been influenced by the dark deeds of The Riddler. Paulo Dano has taken the character to new depths, replacing the camp cartoonery of yore with a malevolent killer that will stop at nothing to get the job done.

You don’t normally get much in the way of strong language or sex and references in Batman films and and that’s the case here too, so violence and threat are the biggest considerations. The Penguin chase scene is pretty intense, but it’s the story arc around the Riddler that steels the show in terms of pushing the age rating up to a 15.

We’ll update you with more details on the film as they get confirmed. You can also check out our movie news section to keep tabs on the latest upcoming films, or visit the Warner Bros website at https://www.warnerbros.co.uk/.

Runtime

As with the age rating, the runtime for The Batman (2022) was confirmed as we got closer to the release date. It clocks in at 2 hours and 56 minutes, which is even longer than other recent DC movies like Justice League and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.