May has arrived and the road to summer is paved with showbiz news. It's time for another round-up!

The Batman 2 is officially in development at Warner Bros. Director Matt Reeves is in process of writing a sequel the hit movie that topped the box office charts in March (see "'The Batman' Tops Friday Box Office with $57 Million"). Dylan Clark will also return to produce this sequel.

Sony Pictures Entertainment offered up a first look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) at Cinema Con (see footage below), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) had recently been pushed back to June 2, 2023 (see "'Spider-Verse' Sequels"). They also announced that Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, a.k.a. Bad Bunny, will play El Muerto in an El Muerto movie. It is projected to hit theaters on January 12, 2024.

A film based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel Seconds is in development at Searchlight with a script by Edgar Wright, who co-wrote and directed the adaptation of O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Blake Lively is on board to direct, which would be the first feature she’s directed, although she is not without directing credits (she was nominated for the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards for her direction of the Taylor Swift video for I Bet You Think About Me). The graphic novel was released in 2014, and made the top five in both comic stores (see "Top 300 GNs – July 2014") and the book channel (see "BookScan Top 10 – July 2014").

Netflix will be releasing a Grendel series based on the comics by Matt Wagner, published most recently by Dark Horse, in 2022, the streamer announced. The series had been reported as in development with Dark Horse since 2021 (see "How Much is Too Much"). The new series will be eight episodes, and star Abubakr Ali as Grendel/Hunter Rose.

HBO Max has ordered a 10-episode adult-animated DC series centered on DC’s Kite Man, a spin-off from the Harley Quinn series with the working title Noonan’s, the streamer announced. In the series, Kite Man and Golden Glider will moonlight as criminals to finance their purchase of Gotham dive bar Noonan’s. Harley Quinn launched on the DC Universe service and moved to HBO Max as DC Universe dropped video content (see "DC Universe Drops Video").

AWA Studios (the media division of Artists, Writers, and Artisans, which also publishes comics) has signed a development deal with Fremantle to develop a slate of TV projects based on AWA intellectual properties, the companies announced.

We’ve updated our Geek Movie Calendar with the re-release of Avatar with restored picture and sound in Fall 2022, new dates for Marvels and Antman in 2023, and the date for the Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie. For geek movies coming out in 2022, see "Geek Movie Calendar – 2022" and for 2023, see "Geek Movie Calendar – 2023."