'The Batman' release date moved back while 'The Matrix 4' is moved forward

Watch: The Batman and Dune become latest films to be delayed by pandemic

The Batman is to be pushed back until 2022, in more upheaval of the increasingly fluid Warner Bros studio release schedule.

It was all set for 1 October 2021 release, but has now been shunted back to 4 March, 2022, the studio has announced, following the news yesterday that Denis Villeneuve’s big budget remake of Dune is to take its place.

The production of The Batman has been significantly delayed, not least by its shoot in the UK being suspended in the wake of the coronavirus.

Read more: Colin Farrell unrecognisable in The Batman trailer

Just days after filming resumed last month, Batman himself – Robert Pattinson – tested positive for coronavirus, delaying things yet further.

According to The Wrap, the shoot still has 11 weeks left to go.

It follows news that the forthcoming, long-in-gestation DC Comics movie Black Adam, set to star Dwayne Johnson, which had also previously been confirmed for a release at Christmas 2021, has now been removed from the Warner Bros slate completely.

However, not all Warner projects are being shoved further into the future – The Matrix 4 has now been moved up.

The hotly anticipated sequel was originally set for April 2022, but will now shift forward four months, and will be released in December, 2021.

The fourth movie in the Matrix series, coming 17 years after The Matrix Revolutions, was also disrupted by the coronavirus lockdown.

Filming in Berlin was put on ice back in March, however, it resumed in August.

Watch: Robert Pattinson Tests Positive for COVID-19, The Batman Production Is Halted