TV & Beyond on 2025-07-20 14:00:00

by | Jul 20, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles | 0 comments

TV & Beyond on 2025-07-20 14:00:00

announced they’d completed the sequel’s script on June 27, 2025. Warner Bros. has since received the script and is apparently quite happy with it. Hence, it’s seeming more and more like “The Batman Part II” will make its 2027 release date.

“The Batman” was a nearly three hour-long epic that saw Batman (Robert Pattinson) meet many of his classic foes. The main villain of the movie was the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer out to expose corruption in Gotham. The root of said corruption was mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), who’ served by gangsters like Oz “The Penguin” Cobb (Colin Farrell). Batman also met Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), though the movie bypassed her bad girl phase and portrayed her as Batman’s ally from the start.

The Penguin at least will be back for the sequel. Going forward, it appears that Reeves’ Gotham will also have a big ensemble of bad guys the way that “Batman” comics do. So, which new ones will enter the picture in “Part II”? Reeves has said he hopes the choice will be “surprising” to the audience, but also that he doesn’t expect the villain to overshadow Batman (via Total Film):

“I want the emotional part of the story to be Robert Pattinson’s — to be Bruce & Batman’s … I’m excited by the antagonist of the next movie, but I don’t want Batman’s arc to step back to allow space for another group of characters.”

I know “The Batman” featured a small cameo by Barry Keoghan as the Joker, but Batman vs. the Joker is a story we’ve seen before. Harvey Dent/Two-Face would similarly be treading on old ground. And while I think there’s a case for merging Reeves’ Gotham into James Gunn’s DC Universe, Gunn and Reeves have said that won’t happen. So, that likely rules out the villains due to appear in Gunn’s DCU, like Clayface and Bane.

Who does that leave?

The Court of Owls

Members of the Court with a Talon in the center in Batman: The Court of Owls

DC Comics

Here’s one the Bat-fans have been asking for (and reading into clues left by “The Penguin” for). The Court of Owls were introduced by writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo in 2011 as the villains of their debut arc on “Batman.” They’re a secret society that has secretly controlled Gotham City since its Colonial-era founding, yet are so secretive even Batman doesn’t know they exist. The Court wear owl-shaped masks (because owls eat bats) and use assassins called Talons to enforce their will, as a Gotham nursery rhyme describes:

“Beware The Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they’ll send the Talon for your head.”

Pattinson is a fan of the “Court of Owls” story, and gave his approval to a fan theory that in this universe, Thomas and Martha Wayne were members of the Court. “The Batman” was all about how a powerful few control Gotham, so introducing the Court could continue that theme. Plus, a big part of “The Court of Owls” is Bruce being trapped in an underground labyrinth, slowly deteriorating mentally. Pattinson’s Batman is easily one of the more fragile versions of the Dark Knight, both physically and mentally. It’s easy to see him fitting into a story about Batman struggling psychologically and realizing just how small he is compared to all of Gotham.

Sofia Falcone

Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin

HBO Max

Carmine Falcone may be dead and buried, but his legacy is alive and well in his daughter, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). She stole the show in “The Penguin” and Milioti has even gotten an Emmy nomination for her performance. (By the time the “Batman” sequel is out, she could even be an Emmy winner.)

When “The Penguin” begins, Sofia has just been released from Arkham Asylum. It’s not a coincidence she got out the week her dad died; Carmine had a nasty habit of strangling women to death. Sofia discovered the truth about her father, so he framed her for his crimes, getting her sent to Arkham and branded “the Hangman” killer by the media. With Carmine gone, she’s freed, but her time locked up led her to a truly dark place mentally. Sofia spends “The Penguin” in a turf war with Oz — one she loses, so, by the end of the series, she’s locked back up in Arkham. Including her in “The Batman Part II” would take some exposition, sure, but not more than one or two lines.

Granted, Sofia may not be main villain material next to the Bat. But still, after Milioti’s firecracker performance in “The Penguin,” it’d be a mistake to not include her at all in “The Batman Part II.” The thought of her sharing scenes with Pattinson’s Batman is thrilling and an opportunity not to ignore. Sofia’s last scene in “The Penguin” also features her receiving a letter from Selina, her half-sister — could that be a way to bring both women back into “The Batman Part II,” perhaps?

Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze in the cover for Detective Comics #1088

DC Comics

It’s been almost 30 years since we’ve seen Mr. Freeze in a “Batman” movie. The panned “Batman & Robin” made the character into a joke, compounded by the ill-advised casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Freeze. As such, it’s time for the Batman rogue to get some big-screen redemption.

Now, on one hand, as a man who walks around in a mobile cryogenic tank and carries a freeze ray, Mr. Freeze is one of the sillier Batman nemeses and one too outlandish, perhaps, for the grounded “crime epic” Reeves and co. are going for. But Freeze is also one of the most human Batman villains. Ever since the acclaimed “Batman: The Animated Series” episode “Heart of Ice,” Freeze’s motivation has been vengeance for the death of his terminally-ill wife Nora (or attempts to cure her illness).

Mr. Freeze represents what Batman would be if he never got over his own losses and chose to take his pain out on the world instead of helping others. Bruce’s arc in “The Batman” was all about him realizing he has to be more than vengeance, so done well, Freeze could be an effective foil.

Plus, “The Batman” ends with the Riddler and his cronies flooding Gotham by breaking down its sea walls. A villain with a freeze ray in a city that is half underwater? There’s a lot of possibilities for creative set pieces there.

The Scarecrow

The Scarecrow in Batman: Fear State

DC Comics

Dr. Jonathan Crane is a psychologist obsessed with studying, and sadistically inflicting, fear. To that end, he has adopted the persona of “The Scarecrow” and created “Fear Toxin,” a hallucinogenic that brings out people’s worst phobias. His fear motif makes him an excellent foil for Batman; Batman preys on criminals’ fears while Scarecrow terrorizes the innocent.

The Scarecrow appeared in all three of the Christopher Nolan “Dark Knight” films, played by Cillian Murphy (who did a screen test for Batman himself). But it still feels like there’s untapped potential for the villain onscreen. In “Batman Begins,” Scarecrow is overshadowed by the real main villain, Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson). In the two subsequent films, he only has cameos. I say he’s been benched long enough. (This time, let’s get a more dramatic and scarier Scarecrow costume than a burlap mask on a suit.)

Scarecrow is one of the more psychological Batman enemies. That makes him a great fit for the type of “Batman” film that Reeves wants; one where the emotional journey is for Bruce himself. All the “Batman: The Animated Series” episodes starring Scarecrow were less about the villain himself and more about how Batman powered through the Fear Toxin’s waking nightmares. That opens the opportunity for some surreal, horror-infused hallucination sequences. Similar to the Court of Owls, Scarecrow is a villain that could work to break Pattinson’s already neurotic Batman.

Professor Hugo Strange

Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City

Rocksteady

Speaking of evil psychologists! Despite how many “Batman” movies there have been, not all of his major villains have leapt from the comics to the silver screen. One of those is Professor Hugo Strange, one of the earliest Batman villains. (He debuted in 1940’s “Detective Comics” #36, a few months ahead of the Joker’s fateful first appearance.)

Strange lacks a dual identity but is no less dangerous for it. In his earliest appearances, he was more of a diabolical scientist; one of his plans involved transforming innocent people into brutish “Monster Men.” As more colorful Batman villains debuted, Strange fell into disuse during the 1940s. He returned in the 1970s storyline “Strange Apparitions” by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers; Strange was reinvented as a more psychology-focused villain, one who had learned Batman’s true identity and was out to unravel what drove the Dark Knight. This reinvented Hugo Strange is the one who has appeared ever since.

As one of the least ostentatious Batman villains, Strange could fit comfortably into Reeves’ Gotham. His introduction could also allow a greater focus on Arkham Asylum (several Batman adaptations depict Strange as a doctor working there). Like Scarecrow, Strange’s goal of probing the Dark Knight’s mind also fits Reeves’ stated goals of a “Batman” story focused on Bruce, with a villain who doesn’t overshadow Batman.

“The Batman Part II” is currently set for an October 1, 2027 theatrical release.

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