Robert Pattinson is donning the cape and cowl in 2022’s The Batman, but his first experience as the hero was with an earlier version of the iconic costume. During DC’s 2021 FanDome event for the movie’s new trailer, director Matt Reeves revealed that Pattinson auditioned in the Val Kilmer Batsuit — and it nearly scared him away from the role.

“When Rob and I first got together we had all these conversations and just by virtue of what it is (it’s Batman), the studio was like, ‘well we always do a screentest.’ [Rob] was wearing, I believe, Val Kilmer’s Batsuit. Which by the way, the moment you put it on was kind of a crazy moment.”

The creatives behind Batman: The Caped Crusader revealed a first look at the upcoming HBO Max animated series at this weekend’s DC FanDome, showing off a noir-inspired Gotham City.

Announced in May of 2021, the series is the brainchild of J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Matt Reeves (The Batman), James Tucker (Batman Beyond), and original BTAS creator Bruce Timm, who has said the series would be thrilling, cinematic and evocative of Batman’s noir roots.

A little more than a year ago, director Matt Reeves took the virtual stage at DC FanDome to introduce a reimagined Batman universe with Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne at the center. The pandemic wreaked havoc on The Batman’s release date, but finally, on Saturday, just a few months before the DC comic book movie bows in theaters, Reeves returned to FanDome to show off a new full trailer for the film, which gives a shadowy-but-clearer look at how a younger Bruce Wayne is dealing with the rise of Riddler (Paul Dano), Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz).

Squarely set in Gotham City, The Batman finds Bruce — complete with throwback Batmobile, a speedier Bat-bike, and a costume that might made of guns? — charting the waters of a crime-infested world. At the top of the film, The Riddler seems to be on a murder kick, and as Reeves and cowriter Mattson Tomlin have said many times, the serial killer streak will likely put Batman’s detective skills to use.

DC Comics announced on Saturday that it is readying Wonder Woman for the first crossover event to spin out of the hero’s main series since the early 1990s. A DC FanDome panel revealed that Trial of the Amazons will rock DC’s expanding Wonder Woman titles at a “cosmic scale” in 2022.

The world of Wonder Woman has been in flux for a few months now, as Diana traveled through various afterlives in search of a way back to Earth, her mother Hippolyta became the Wonder Woman of the Justice League, the Amazon warrior Nubia stepped up to become queen of Themyscira, and a new Wonder Girl began her path to heroism in Brazil.

Shazam (the superhero, that is) returned to DC FanDome this weekend to show off a behind-the-scenes look at the next installment of the family-friendly, family superhero franchise: Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Actors Zachary Levi and Asher Angel — who together play Billy Batson in his superhero and kid identities — introduced the footage, taken on set during the production’s 2021 shoot. Joining the cast are a set of new villains, the daughters of Atlas, played by Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Helen Mirren (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), and Lucy Liu (Kill Bill).

The latest sneak peek from this year’s DC FanDome takes us to a different side of Gotham City for our first look at HBO Max’s forthcoming Batgirl film.

In the Heights star Leslie Grace will take on the role of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of police Commissioner Gordon and tech wiz who, inspired by Batman’s vigilante justice, dons a cape and cowl of her own to fight crime as Batgirl.

Two of DC’s superhero teams are coming back for new season. Doom Patrol and Titans have both been renewed for fourth seasons, DC announced on Saturday during the 2021 FanDome event.

DC didn’t have too much to give away about the plot of either upcoming season, mostly because the shows’ third seasons are still airing. Doom Patrol season 3, which mostly involves a shake up in the team after Madame Rouge arrives in a time machine, is set to end on Nov. 11. Titans season 3, which is mostly about Red Hood and Scarecrow, will wrap up on Oct. 21.

Catwoman is the star of the latest DC animated movie, and her thievery has gotten her in trouble again. DC premiered the first footage from Catwoman: Hunted during its FanDome event on Saturday, giving fans a look at comic’s most famous cat burglar, along with the villains and heroes who are out to get her in the new movie.

The movie follows Catwoman as she steals a priceless jewel and lands in hot water with just about everyone. Meanwhile, her one ally in the movie is Batwoman. The trailer also shows off Black Mask, Solomon Grundy, Talia Al Ghul, Interpol, and more all after Catwoman.

Blue Beetle is the latest DC superhero to make the jump to big screens, and the first live-action superhero movie about a Latinx character from Latinx filmmakers.

And at Saturday’s 2021 DC FanDome event, the first real details about the film were revealed.

The DC comic book multiverse will collide in 2022’s The Flash, a spectacle that, judging from the first trailer out of DC FanDome, hopes to put the best parts of Zack Snyder’s “DCEU” to good use. From director Andy Muschietti (It) and screenwriter Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey, Batgirl), the movie finds Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen at the nexus between his world and one where none other than Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne from 1989’s Batman protects the streets. Miller was on hand to introduce the trailer, despite also being on the set of the movie, which is currently in production.

The Flash is based on the infamous DC Comics storyline Flashpoint. In the comics, Barry Allen wakes up in a very different DC Universe. Superman seems to not exist. Aquaman’s home of Atlantis is at war with Wonder Woman’s people in Themyscira. In Gotham City, Bruce Wayne was murdered in front of his parents’ eyes, and his father, Thomas Wayne, became the Dark Knight instead. Barry is the only person who remembers what once was, leaving him and his reality-bending speed to try and undo whatever happened.

Fans have been dreaming up celebrity casts for a film adaptation of The Sandman for decades, and this weekend at DC FanDome, Netflix revealed the latest look at its official cast for the upcoming The Sandman Netflix series: Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, the uncanny Lord of all Hell. A first look of Tom Sturridge as the main character, Dream, was released previously at Netflix’s own Tudum event.

Based on the legendary DC Comics series of the same name, created by Gaiman and the crème de la crème of late ’80s/early ’90s comics artists, Netflix’s The Sandman has taken a long road to film adaptation. The series is pegged as “the most expensive TV series that DC Entertainment has ever done.” Christie’s character might be best known to TV audiences as played by Tom Ellis in the TV series Lucifer, which is also (loosely) based on Sandman — in which Lucifer eventually renounces his rule of Hell to spite the Allmighty, and opens a nightclub.

As the Man of Tomorrow, Superman fights for all of humanity. DC Comics CCO and publisher Jim Lee drove that message home at the 2021 DC FanDome when he announced that the Man of Steel’s longtime motto would undergo a new change.

“To better reflect the storylines that we are telling across DC, and to honor Superman’s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world, Superman’s motto is evolving,” Lee said. “Superman has long been a symbol of hope who inspires people, and it is that optimism and hope that powers him forward with this new mission statement: truth, justice and a better tomorrow.”

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is a movie full of jerks, but one jerk reigns supreme: John Cena’s Peacemaker, the no-nonsense Mack truck of a man with a ridiculous outfit and an absurdly large gun (and guns, if you know what I mean). He’s also the star of the first TV series to spin out of a live-action DC film, HBO Max’s forthcoming Peacemaker.

In the first trailer, which premiered at the 2021 DC FanDome event, Peacemaker springs back to life to meet a crew of new agents who need his help taking out bad guys. That’s pretty much the setup — and from there, complete mayhem. Sights in the trailer include Peacemaker and his new bud Vigilante blasting away bottles near their nether-regions, a discussion of a “butt baby,” and a moment where our antihero gets a hug from a bald eagle.

Rocksteady Studios, the team behind the groundbreaking Batman Arkham games, is taking on the Suicide Squad in its next game. That team of lovable misfits is tasked with taking down the Justice League, who have been brainwashed by the supervillain Brainiac. Logically, that game is called Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Rocksteady revealed more about the open-world action game at DC FanDome on Saturday.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will star four (now) well-known anti-heroes — Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark — on a mission to take down not just Brainiac, but evil versions of DC heroes like Superman too. The Squad will fight in across an open-world Metropolis that’s set in Rocksteady’s established “Arkham-verse.”

Aquaman is back on the throne of Atlantis in Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. The first behind-the-scenes footage from Aquaman 2, a sequel to James Wan’s 2018 superhero movie, debuted on Saturday as part of DC’s FanDome event.

The behind-the-scenes footage doesn’t reveal much about the plot, but it does show previous of some of the set pieces and action sequences that fans will see in the final movie. There are beaches, cities, snowy mountains, and caves, and of course plenty of underwater fights. The short clip also features the cast talking about how much bigger, more epic, and more fun this new movie.

Milestone Comics brass shared big news for Static and the rest of the superheroes of Dakota City at this weekend’s DC FanDome. Milestone characters are coming to animation for the first time since 2000’s Static Shock cartoon series, and a live action movie is gearing up as well.

In the Milestone segment of FanDome, producer Reggie Hudlin and Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan announced that Warner Bros. Animation — the division behind the multitude of DC Universe Animated Movies — is developing an animated film based on the Milestone superhero setting, written by Brandon Thomas (Hardware Season One, Aquaman: The Becoming). The film will feature “more than one character,” according to Cowan, indicating that it won’t just be the Virgil Hawkins/Static show — top Milestone characters include the Superman-reflecting Icon and Rocket, as well as the high-tech suit-wearing Hardware.

Since the 2020 DC FanDome, Dwayne Johnson has promised that his first ever comic book movie, Black Adam, would rock (Rock?) the DC movie universe. This year, he hoped to prove it with the first clip from the movie, which finds a group of mercenary types stumbling into an ancient temple. If you know Black Adam from the comics, it’ll all be familiar.

What we didn’t get a look at are Black Adam’s foes: the group of heroes known to comic readers as the Justice Society of America. The line-up includes Atom-Smasher (Noah Centino), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), all of whom are expected to end up a little bruised after encountering Black Adam’s combinations of flight, super strength, super speed, and electricity attacks. Hodge and Brosnan both appeared in the lead up to the clip, with the ex-Bond saying the scope of the film was bigger than anything he’d ever encountered during his time playing 007.

The 2021 DC FanDome streaming event is almost here, and the entire thing is going to be free for fans to watch. The four-hour event is set to feature announcements, trailers, and stars from DC’s biggest movie, TV, comic, and game franchises like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Justice League.

All of DC FanDome 2021 will be streamable at the DC FanDome website, or on DC’s YouTube channel. The event starts at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 16.