When Robert Pattinson's The Batman arrives in theaters in 2022, it will have used the same virtual production technology as The Mandalorian.

When Robert Pattinson's The Batman arrives in theaters in 2022, it will have gotten there using the same real-time visual effects tech pioneered by the team behind The Mandalorian. Virtual production began to take off in the last couple of years, starting with director Jon Favreau's remake of The Lion King for Disney.

After that film won the Oscar for outstanding visual effects, Favreau took the innovative process to The Mandalorian, season 1, utilizing large, wall-sized LED screens to project environments on set behind the actors. The breakthrough technology moved effects traditionally rendered in post-production to the middle of the production itself.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the legendary visual effects house founded by George Lucas, created a virtual production unit based on the techniques developed for The Mandalorian called StageCraft, powered by the Unreal game engine from Epic Games.

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#TheBatman is going to look a lot like #TheMandalorian - production wise. Read more about the Warner Bros. film's cutting-edge technology, at the link in bio.

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Bredow said StageCraft is making it possible to speed production considerably on the kinds of effects-driven blockbusters that fans demand - and that the technology is still being perfected. "[The] Holy Grail is that our entire work flow can go real time," Bredow said, "with less waiting for big computers to process." ILM and Epic Games have been making "big investments" to make that goal happen, Bredow added.