The Batman has finally swooped (or glided?) into theaters, and fans of the Dark Knight, superheroes, and comic book movies have raced to the nearest theater to catch it. That's unsurprising in our view, as we thought The Batman was a masterpiece .
Based on its largely positive critical reception , too, we're not shocked to see The Batman become the second movie (since the pandemic began) to gross $100 million-plus on opening weekend. The first? Spider-Man: No Way Home. If it wasn't obvious by now, superhero movies are literally saving the global box office.
But we digress. If you caught The Batman over the past weekend, we imagine you have questions about its ending and post-credits scene. Below, we’ll reveal what the ending of the Dark Knight’s latest movie means for an increasingly likely sequel. We also take a look at The Batman’s post-credits scene and explain more about the future of this Caped Crusader live-action franchise .
Major spoilers follow for The Batman. If you’ve yet to see it, turn back now. Bookmark this page, though, and read up on the information below once you’ve watched this DC movie .
The Batman ending explained
Unsurprisingly, Batman – with some much-needed help from Selina Kyle – saves the day.
Well, sort of. The duo stops the Riddler and his armed followers from killing Gotham City mayoral candidate Bella Reál, as well as her followers, at a rally. And, with the aid of Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon and Gotham’s law-abiding police officers, the pair leads people to safety after the Riddler’s sinister masterplan winds up flooding Gotham’s streets.
Riddler did win, though, in some small way. He revealed the extent of the corruption within Gotham, killed a number of innocent people, and terrorized the city with his fear-inducing videos and multiple crimes. He pushed Batman to his limit and, while the Riddler inadvertently made the Dark Knight realize how important he is to Gotham’s citizens, others aren’t convinced that the city is worth fighting for.
Disappointingly for Batman/Bruce Wayne, one of those individuals is Kyle. She tries to convince Batman to leave Gotham to its fate – “this place is never gonna change”, she tells him – and join her in Bludhaven. But Batman’s allegiances lie with his city and, after the duo playfully race their motorbikes through Gotham’s cemetery, they share a bittersweet goodbye before going their separate ways.
There is one particularly significant scene involving the Riddler and another Arkham Asylum inmate, which is shown before Batman and Kyle part ways. We've covered this in more detail in a separate article , complete with exclusive quotes from Reeves, who reveals more about this mysterious character, whose true identity has been revealed elsewhere on the internet. Be aware of those spoilers, too, if you want to remain in the dark (like Batman) about who he is.
The Batman post-credits scene: is there one?
Yes, but it’s not really worth sticking around for. Once the credits have rolled, a simple ‘goodbye’ message – styled in the same way as Riddler’s green-colored computer messages from earlier in the film – pops up. It hangs around for a few seconds before the screen cuts to black.
Evidently, there’s not much we can infer from this. The message could simply be Warner Bros’ way of saying farewell to us after we’ve watched a three-hour-long – albeit brilliant – Batman movie. Given that the end credits scene also reveals a link to an official website – Rata Alada – that ties directly into The Batman's plot, the film's post-credits scene is most likely just a marketing ploy to get audiences to visit said website.
Alternatively, you could interpret it as the Riddler somehow getting access to his computer – we’re not sure how, seeing as he’s locked up in Arkham – and teasing us that he’ll return. It’s that, or one of his followers made it out alive and posted the message for him.
We’ll have to wait and see if this post-credits scene ties into a potential sequel to The Batman. However, if we had to guess, we'd say that it could do.
Why? Well, following The Batman's theatrical launch, the Rata Alada website has started counting down to... something. If you head over to the site now, you'll be greeted by The Riddler's logo before a batch of green text flashes up on the screen. This information reveals the IP address for a number of Gotham-based websites, before it quickly transitions to another page.
On the reloaded webpage, you can click for a reward – you'll receive any number of images, or some background information on the Wayne family – if you do so. However, underneath the clickable link, you'll see the word 'Loading' alongside a percentage number. At the time of writing (10:35am GMT on Monday, March 7), that figure stands at 38%. On the evening of The Batman's March 4 release, it was only at 4%.
So what is this hinting at? We think it has something to do with the "really cool" scene that Reeves left out of the film , as he told TechRadar before the film's release.
Alternatively, it could confirm that a sequel to The Batman is on the way once it hits 100%. That's less likely in our opinion, but we'd be delighted if that's what is revealed once the webpage is fully loaded. We'll keep you posted on this front.
The Batman sequel: will there be a follow-up?
Yes, almost certainly. The Batman is one of 2022's most hotly anticipated movies and, according to Deadline , it's expected to make $225 million globally during its opening weekend. If it follows in Spider-Man: No Way Home 's footsteps in amassing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, Warner Bros. would be silly not to greenlight a follow-up.
And it seems that they're on the verge of doing so. Reeves has already confirmed that he’s discussing a sequel to The Batman with Warner Bros, telling reporters at the film’s LA premiere (via the Bat_Source Twitter fan account) that “we have started talking about another movie”.
Speaking exclusively to TechRadar ahead of The Batman’s release, Reeves doubled-down on his wish to make a follow-up movie. Reeves, though, suggested that The Batman’s ending wasn’t indicative of where a potential sequel could go from a plot perspective.
“I've been talking to Warner about ideas that I have for a follow-up,” Reeves told us. “But just to say, that last scene is not necessarily the idea for that sequel. It was more to lean into the idea at the end of the story that trouble was brewing [in Gotham].”
So where could a possible sequel go, both from a narrative and supervillain perspective? Interestingly, Reeves and The Batman star Robert Pattinson have already revealed which villains in Batman’s extensive rogues gallery they’d like to tackle in The Batman 2. Reeves said he’d love to create a new live-action version of Doctor Victor Fries/Mr Freeze (per Collider ), while Pattinson wants his Dark Knight to take on the Court of Owls (via Den of Geek ).
We’ll have to see if either of those wishes come true, but it may be a while before we know for sure. According to The Batman producer Dylan Clark, it’ll be “less than five years” before a sequel arrives (per Comicbookom ). Hopefully, we'll hear some good news on that front sooner rather than later.
What we do know is that two Batman spin-off projects are in the works for HBO Max . Colin Farrell, who plays Oswald Cobblepot in The Batman, is getting a Penguin TV spin-off, with the Irish actor exclusively telling TechRadar about specific parts of its development. Meanwhile, a Gotham City Police Department TV series, set during Batman’s first year as a vigilante, is also on the way. Aside from news that Joe Barton (Girl/Haji) will be its showrunner, details on this project are few and far between.
New iPhone SE and iPad Air pre-ordersare live – should you take the plunge?
After being announced at the Apple March event , the new iPhone SE 3 and iPad Air 5 are now available to pre-order, so if you're excited about the new Apple devices you can put your money down to make sure you're first in line to get your hands on them.
We've got guides to iPhone SE pre-orders and iPad Air pre-orders that you can check out to help you find the best deals on the new phone and slate.
They're iterative updates in most aspects, but they do bring some upgrades – both offer 5G where the previous models didn't, and they benefit from new processors too.
So if you're an Apple fan, or perhaps an Android user who's considering hopping the fence (or simply someone who isn't invested in either ecosystem), should these be your next phone or tablet?
Like all Apple products, the iPhone SE and iPad Air are relatively pricey, especially when you add on the cost of cases, contracts, and accessories. So to help you decide whether or not you should splash your cash, we've written this brief guide.
Should I pre-order the iPhone SE 3 and iPad Air 5?
Considering pre-ordering if...
Don't considering pre-ordering if...
We mastered the viral air fryer Creme Egg recipe – here’s how
With Easter just around the corner, the shops are full of Cadbury Creme Eggs and other chocolatey delights – although if you’re anything like us, you won’t be able to hold out until Easter Sunday itself to treat yourself.
But have you ever considered wrapping your Creme Eggs in pastry and cooking them in an air fryer ? It’s a trend that was started by Instagram account Boredoflunch , and which has since gone viral.
Our mouths were watering after watching the video – it certainly takes tucking into a pain au chocolat in the morning to the next level. So we decided to give it a go… after all, the Instagram reel makes the recipe look simple as well as delicious.
It's not quite as easy as it looks
The recipe calls for just two ingredients in addition to the Creme Egg: pre-made croissant dough and a beaten egg. To start, open the tube of pre-made croissant dough, which you can buy in most grocery stores, and roll it out – our dough had perforations that made it easy to cut into evenly-sized triangles.
Next, unwrap the Creme Egg and roll one of the triangles of pastry around it. Then brush the top of the pastry with beaten egg, set your air fryer to 338F / 170C and cook for eight minutes. When cooked, the pastry should be crisp, and the chocolate and fondant of the egg should ooze out as you cut into it.
However that wasn’t quite the case for us. The pastry was evenly browned on top, but the sides and the bottom weren't as we hadn’t turned the egg part-way through cooking (more on that below). The egg had also stuck to the crisper plate of our air fryer, and when we did manage to dislodge it we found that some of the filling had leaked out during cooking, creating a sticky mess. And when we cut into our creation we discovered that some of the pastry wasn’t fully cooked.
It was a setback for sure, but by this point our craving for sweet, chocolate-filled pastries simply had to be satisfied, so we decided to persevere with the recipe, and using our previous experience of air-fryer experimentation – specifically, using an air fryer to create fried chicken to rival KFC , and discovering that we could make Krispy Kreme style doughnuts in an air fryer – we tweaked the process to (hopefully) give a better result...
1. Use parchment paper in the air fryer
As mentioned, our first attempt at a croissant-wrapped Creme Egg stuck to the crisper plate, which left a mess for us to clean up – but more importantly, it meant that when we tried to remove the egg, some of the delicate pastry was pulled away from the chocolate, allowing the chocolate and the fondant filling to ooze out – we’re all for oozing chocolate, but we'd prefer it ooze after we've taken it out of our air fryer.
To get around this issue we placed a small square of parchment paper underneath the egg to stop it sticking. We employed a similar trick when we made French Toast in an air fryer , which prevented the French Toast from sticking, and made it easy to clean the crisper plate, so it made sense to do the same thing here.
We made sure the parchment paper was only slightly bigger than the egg so that it didn’t cover too many of the holes in the crisper plate – these are the key to the air-frying process, as they allow the hot air to circulate around the cooking cavity.
2. Increase the temperature
Boredoflunch recommends a cooking temperature of 338F / 170C, and a duration of eight minutes. While we had no issues with the time, we thought the suggested temperature seemed a little low – but as we’re keen never to second-guess a cook’s recipe, we continued. However, after our first attempt, we were convinced that our hunch was right.
Over the past year, we’ve been on a mission to discover the best things to cook in an air fryer, turning our hand to everything from fries to cinnamon rolls, and one thing we’ve learned is that, as a general rule, the temperature required for cooking a dish a standard oven is around what you should be using with the air fryer.
The cooking instructions for the croissant dough suggested 356F / 180C, so we cranked the temperature up for our second attempt, in a bid to ensure that the croissant dough was fully cooked and we’d get crispy, flaky pastry rather than claggy dough.
3. Ensure the egg is evenly coated in dough (and turn the egg)
One thing Boredoflunch doesn’t highlight is that the pastry surrounding the Creme Egg should be an even thickness all the way around, which will help to ensure it’s evenly cooked. So we spent a few extra moments smoothing out the dough until it looked to be the same thickness all aound the egg.
Many air fryers, including the Instant Vortex Plu s, which currently tops our round-up of the best air fryers you can buy, have a 'shake reminder' function. This provides an audible, and in some cases visual, alert, prompting you to remove the frying basket, and shake or turn the food part-way through cooking to help ensure it’s evenly cooked.
Boredoflunch doesn’t mention whether the egg should be turned, but we decided it would probably help, and it certainly couldn’t hurt.
We’re lovers of all things caramel, and in our opinion, there’s nothing better than mixing it with chocolate – and with nine million Cadbury Caramel bars sold every year in the UK, we’re clearly not alone. So as well as wrapping a Creme Egg in croissant dough, we did the same with a Cadbury Caramel egg.
Having made our tweaks to the cooking process there was nothing left to do other than get frying…
Verdict
After the cooking time elapsed (and having turned the eggs halfway through), we opened the air fryer drawer and were thrilled at what we found. Both eggs were evenly browned, and the greaseproof ensured that we were able to remove them easily from the air fryer.
Next came the moment of truth – we sliced into the eggs, and it was clear that the pastry was properly cooked, with crisp, flaking layers, while the filling oozed out like lava flowing from a chocolate-and-fondant volcano.
And so on to the all-important taste test. In our opinion the Creme Egg version is slightly too sickly, and half of one was more than enough. The Cadbury Caramel Egg version, on the other hand, was the perfect blend of sweetness and creaminess for our taste buds.
You may want to tweak the process for yourself, and adjust the cooking time and temperature for your particular air fryer – and in our opinion the results are well worth a little trial and error. If you want to indulge your chocolate egg cravings in a slightly different way, and create an irresistable Easter treat, look no further.
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