At last, The Batman Part II has shown signs of true life. With production to begin in June, director Matt Reeves spent two days on social media using GIFs to reveal the sequel’s core cast. Beyond most of the previous movie’s major players and some returning fan favorites, Reeves confirmed previously rumored castings of Marvel alums Sebastian Stan and Scarlett Johansson, as well as Charles Dance. He also revealed two fresh names: Brian Tyree Henry and German actor Sebastian Koch. To say it’s been a saga for The Batman’s sequel to exist would be putting it mildly. io9 has covered this a few times, in part because it neatly intersects with how franchises are made nowadays and the communities born from them. For as concerned fans have been over the years, it seemed unlikely that Part II wouldn’t see the light of day, even before the prospects of a second cinematic Batman entered the picture. But in this day and age, radio silence is a crap shoot: either a team’s hard at work (and hopefully not getting worked to death), or the project’s in such disarray that being gutted might be a blessing in disguise. Until Reeves divulges specifics, we’ll likely never know what led to The Batman Part II having a lengthy development process. But the casting announcements by way of X show he’s more than aware of the digital lashings he’s been receiving, and the posts are his way of performing some image rehab. It’s one thing to know production kicks up in a month, and another for Reeves to spend a few hours of his day building up hype with some GIFs.