Superheroes are ubiquitous now. The ones that have been around and popular for decades are well-known to most of the world. As such, it’s less of a necessity to tell the origin stories for our more iconic superheroes in film than ever before. We don’t need to see yet another depiction of Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider. We really don’t. We don’t need another retelling of baby Superman crashing to Earth from Krypton.

And for the love of God, we absolutely do not need to see Thomas and Martha Wayne getting shot in a Gotham City alleyway again. The strand of pearls breaks. We get it.

Marvel got the memo on this a few years ago when they made a point to stop doing origin stories and, thankfully, it looks like Matt Reeves will be following suit for DC with The Batman.

While recently speaking to Nerdist, Reeves explained that while his version of Batman, played by Robert Pattinson, would be young, it is definitely not an origin story:

“I wanted to do not an origin tale, but a tale that would still acknowledge his origins, in that it formed who he is. Like this guy, he’s majorly struggling, and this is how he’s trying to rise above that struggle. But that doesn’t mean that he even fully understands, you know. It’s that whole idea of the shadow self and what’s driving you, and how much of that you can incorporate, and how much of it you’re doing that you’re unaware of.”

I like this angle. A young Bruce Wayne early in his career that doesn’t quite know himself or his motivations yet. One who struggles with grief, trauma, and understanding exactly what it is driving him to be the Batman. If there’s one complaint I’ve had about the various movie Batman incarnations over the years, it’s that we’ve rarely gotten moments of self-reflection and introspection. It’s almost always been about the vehicles and the gadgets and the Batman of it all, most of which has been great (as ever, our pact as rational humans to never discuss the Bat-nipples remains intact). Rarely has a Batman movie really dived down deep into Bruce Wayne’s psyche, explored what makes him him. It’s long been said that Batman is actually who he is and Bruce Wayne is just the mask he wears, but the problem with that is that spending so much time as Batman rarely allows us to spend time with Bruce as a person. Batman is an undeniably cool superhero, but he’s not exactly one who invites a deep emotional connection for most people.

Reeves’ take on the Batman story, however, looks like it will rectify that. He explained that from his very initial pitch, he had a very humanist bent to the version of the story he wanted to tell. He explained he doesn’t know how to do things anything other than naturally anchoring every movie he directs in a layered, humanistic foundation:

“It’s not even like that’s an approach that I take, like it’s some kind of idea of, ‘Wouldn’t it be great?’ It’s sort of the only thing that allows me to understand how to do it. I can only understand where the camera goes and how to talk about the story, how to write the story, how to talk to the actors, if I understand emotionally what it is I have to do. Otherwise I’d be lost.

That tracks. Reeves is, if nothing else, a filmmaker who is most gifted with telling the emotional aspect of a story, and he acknowledged as much. “Some people are incredible choreographers and they know how to create an incredible visual dance, or all of that kind of stuff,” he said. “And I love that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, I have to understand it emotionally.”

It’s a mentality that has served him well in his career. The last two movies of the Planet of the Apes trilogy were nuanced and full, emotionally moving stories that made us feel connected to the characters. Sure, it helps when you have the legendary Andy Serkis mocapping the protagonist and anchoring your film, but Reeves’ directing and in particular, his writing in the last film, made Apes one of the most satisfying trilogies in modern movie history, if not ever.

Based on his track record, we can expect more of the same for The Batman, and that it will resonate with us both emotionally and with relevancy.

“There’s something in there that feels very psychological, very emotional, and it felt like there was a way of exploring that along with the corruption in this place, Gotham. That feels very current. I think it always does. There’s almost no time when you can’t do a story about corruption. But today, it still seems incredibly resonant and maybe, from my perspective, maybe more so than maybe at other time.”

The Batman will be hitting theaters on June 25, 2021.