You don't walk away from Gotham lightly. Not when you've already painted it in shadows so rich they made Roger Deakins himself tip his hat. Yet that's exactly what Greig Fraser has done—stepping off Matt Reeves' delayed The Batman: Part Two to instead frame Sam Mendes' sprawling, four-film dive into the mythology of The Beatles.
The reveal didn't come with a studio press release or a pompous Variety cover story. It slipped out casually, mid-conversation, on Kevin McCarthy's podcast—Josh Brolin, almost offhand, confirming Fraser would be behind the lens for Mendes' Liverpool quartet. Paul Mescal. Harris Dickinson. Barry Keoghan. Joseph Quinn. Four actors, four films, one director attempting something audacious: telling the Beatles' story in fragments, not as a biopic but as a mosaic.
Fraser's track record is absurd. Dune and Dune: Part Two—cathedrals of sand and shadow. Zero Dark Thirty, humming with covert dread. Foxcatcher, all muted menace. The Batman (2022), which Deakins himself called “the best cinematography of the year” and dismissed its Oscar snub as “snobbery.” Strong words from a man who could've taken the job himself—yes, Mendes asked Deakins to shoot the Beatles cycle, but he passed. Now, Fraser inherits the challenge.
And the fallout? Reeves' Bat-sequel remains scheduled to start production in spring 2026, but without Fraser. Warner Bros. has yet to announce a replacement. Whoever takes over has to wrestle with a precedent: The Batman wasn't just stylish, it was operatic noir, more Gordon Willis than superhero gloss. Fraser shot the hell out of it. The absence will sting.
Meanwhile, Mendes is pushing his Beatles films into motion. Originally slated to begin this summer, production has shifted to fall 2025, with the films intended to shoot back-to-back. That kind of marathon requires stamina—and a DP with vision durable enough to reinvent 1960s Liverpool across four distinct lenses. Fraser's in for a ride.
There's something poetic about this swap. Gotham's perpetual night traded for Liverpool's haze of cigarette smoke and amplifier hum. From bats in silhouette to Beatles in split focus. Maybe that's the kind of pivot cinematography thrives on—new textures, new myths. Fraser didn't just “leave Batman.” He chose music over shadows. Cinema wins either way.
What You Should Know About Fraser's Move
Fraser leaves Gotham
Greig Fraser won't return for The Batman: Part Two, despite his acclaimed work on the 2022 film.
Beatles project confirmed
He's joining Sam Mendes to shoot four interconnected Beatles films, starring Mescal, Dickinson, Keoghan, and Quinn.
Roger Deakins declined
Mendes' longtime collaborator was offered the job first, but turned it down—though he praised Fraser's Batman work as “the best of 2022.”
Production timing
The Beatles films are set to shoot back-to-back starting in fall 2025. The Batman: Part Two is still on track to begin in spring 2026.
Legacy question
Fraser's departure leaves an open wound: who can capture Gotham's gothic pulse the way he did?
