2022’s The Batman already introduced Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman, Paul Dano’s Riddler, Colin Farrell’s Penguin, and Barry Keoghan’s Joker. All of them survived to the end credits and all stand a fairly equal chance of starring in director Matt Reeves’ follow-up, should it ever make it to the big screen (though Reeves has confirmed the script is finally done). But who else would work in The Batman Part II, or The Batman Part III, for that matter? Particularly outlandish villains like Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze “worked” in Batman & Robin because the tone of that film was in and of itself outlandish. Would they make sense in Reeves’ Batman universe? In the case of Mr. Freeze, probably not.
What follows are the Rogues Gallery members who would make for great additions to this particularly grounded and grim Batman universe. Some we’ve seen in films before, and some would be entirely new to the big screen in live-action form. Note that Clayface was excluded, since the DCU (of which The Batman is not a part) is giving him his own movie soon. It would be too much to, in a short span of time, deliver two takes on a character who has never been adapted before.
1) Black Mask
Black Mask already made his cinematic debut in the DCEU’s highly underrated Birds of Prey, where he was played very memorably by Ewan McGregor. That version of the character was the Roman Sionis version, and considering McGregor did such a great job, it might be best to leave him alone for a while, even if the DCEU has now concluded.
If that were to happen, Black Mask could certainly still make a debut of sorts in a The Batman sequel. This is because there have been numerous Black Masks. For instance, there was Jeremiah Arkham, who wasn’t as obsessed with skulls as his predecessor (he took up the mantle after Sionis’ death), but he was similarly unhinged. Arkham was the director of Arkham Asylum, which was included in The Batman albeit under the name Arkham State Hospital. So, perhaps, while we were watching Riddler and Joker getting to know each other, Arkham was sitting in another room, listening through a recorder and picking up some tips. Absolute Batman also introduced its own version of Black Mask, one who broadcast his life story to Gotham about slaughtering pigs when he was just a kid. That sounds like a story that would work in a The Batman sequel.
2) Deadshot
With The Batman and the universe it’s set up, it’s actively better for the villains to be grounded in reality. Instead of being Carrey skipping around the Batcave tossing little squeaking bat bombs and cracking one-liners, he became a super dark serial killer who bashes politicians’ heads in. This is a world where serial killers and assassins are more organic fits than people with freeze guns.
We’ve only seen Deadshot on the big screen once, and that was Will Smith’s take in the reviled Suicide Squad. This is a character who could very easily be brought to life via a different, more effective take. There are a few ways he could go about it, too. In Suicide Squad, Deadshot has a particular hatred for Batman, considering Batman captured him in front of his daughter. That could work in The Batman (especially having Lawton do what he does to pay for his daughter’s education and such), but what would work even better is Batman, or Bruce Wayne, being just a job for Deadshot, and Batman has to figure out the assassin’s identity before he catches a bullet.
3) Hugo Strange
Professor Pyg would be a stretch for The Batman Part II for two major reasons. One, he would probably scare kids, and while Batman movies can be dark, they’re not R-rated territory. Two, he experiments with turning humans into humanoid animals like he’s Dr. Moreau. It’s not outlandish exactly like Batman & Robin, but it’s outlandish nonetheless.
Hugo Strange, however, is another deranged member of the medical community (he’s a psychologist, Pyg is a scientist) who turns his concoctions on his patients. However, instead of turning them in humanoids, he essentially makes them braindead, violent slaves to his will. The Batman already showed Gotham to be a dark, dangerous place with criminals everywhere, so it would make sense to have Strange grab up many of these people who are already struggling and turn them into his soldiers. There’s been speculation that The Penguin already introduced The Batman‘s version of Hugo Strange in Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi), so perhaps Strange’s inclusion is halfway there already.
4) Hush
The Batman had Riddler be an orphan just like Bruce Wayne. The difference was that he didn’t have a shred of the resources at his disposal that Wayne had. He was more subject to the nefarious, underground world that has reached Gotham’s surface and taken it over.
It’s always more interesting when a villain’s backstory runs parallel to the protagonist’s, and that would apply to Hush. Hush, AKA Thomas Elliot, was abused as a child, and one of his few friends at that young age was Bruce Wayne. Elliot wants to murder his own parents for their fortune, but his mother is saved by Thomas Wayne. After learning that Batman is in reality his childhood friend, he teams with Riddler to bring the Bat down. Riddler has already been established, and he’s certainly bitter towards Batman, so Hush would be perfect.
5) Scarecrow
Scarecrow was already done fairly well in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, but he could be done again. Like Hugo Strange, The Batman‘s version of Scarecrow could be a mad scientist type who manipulates people’s minds into becoming his bloodthirsty foot soldiers.
Professor of psychology Jonathan Crane had a traumatizing background that wasn’t explored in Batman Begins (much less in Cillian Murphy’s cameos in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises). We figure that was the case, but a The Batman sequel could be the first Batman blockbuster to shed light on his history. Not to mention, the Gotham of The Batman is already pretty much entirely guided by fear…it would make for a perfect target for Scarecrow.
6) Two-Face
Without a doubt the most iconic villain on this list, it’s hard to tell if The Batman is going to ever go with Two-Face. The first film already adapted four A-list villains, all of whom had been adapted in Batman movies before (Catwoman in Batman Returns and The Dark Knight Rises, Penguin in Batman Returns, Joker in Batman and The Dark Knight, and Riddler in Batman Forever). Would they really want to bring in a character who was already in Batman Forever and The Dark Knight, or would they want to go for an original character?
Probably the latter, but if they did adapt Two-Face, it’s not as if he wouldn’t work in The Batman‘s world. After all, Two-Face boils down to a lawyer who is disfigured and driven insane. He’s basically a standard citizen of this version of Gotham. We’ve already learned that not even Gotham’s most elite residents (e.g. Peter Sarsgaard’s Gil Colson) are immune from the allure of drugs and available depravity, so having a lawyer turn to the wrong side of the law would hardly be a stretch for the tone that’s been established.
7) Calendar Man
Batman: The Long Halloween is a must-read for any Batman fan. At the center of it is Julian Gregory Day, the already incarcerated killer who helps Batman find the Holiday Killer. Called the Calendar Man, he’s a character that has been mostly absent from live-action DC movies, outside a very brief moment for Sean Gunn in The Suicide Squad.
The Batman rebooted the franchise as, first and foremost, a mystery. It was all about Batman using his detective skills, which is a major part of the character that was a present but overall comparatively negligible element in every other Batman movie. Identifying the Holiday Killer is one of the better Batman mysteries out there, and the Calendar Man was integral in Wayne accomplishing that task, so that alone would make him a natural fit in Reeves’ Batman movies. However, in The Long Halloween, it’s revealed the Holiday Killer is Alberto Falcone, who died in The Penguin. With a little identity switching, the Calendar Man could be the Holiday Killer, instead of being a Hannibal Lecter type who assists in the investigation (or perhaps he’s both). After all, he’s called the Calendar Man and holidays fall on specific dates on a calendar. It’s not a huge leap.
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