Michael Keaton returns to the role of Batman in the Flash movie, Matt Reeves will debut his Batman reboot with Robert Pattinson as the lead. The Batman is said to be a noir-inspired tale that focuses on Pattinson's young Batman using his detective skills to thwart his enemies' nefarious plans.
And it seems there'll be no shortage of foes against which to test such skills, with The Batman set to feature several iconic rogues from the fabled gallery. Paul Dano will be appearing as Riddler, alongside Colin Farrell as The Penguin, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, and even John Turturro showing up as mob boss Carmine Falcone. As if that wasn't enough, Peter Sarsgaard will be playing original character District Attorney Gil Colson, who the actor has revealed is "a pretty distasteful person." There's even a theory that Colson could actually turn out to be a new version of Two-Face.
With so many villains appearing in the film, Reeves will have a lot to juggle story-wise. The director will no doubt do everything to ensure Batman & Robin. But the characters themselves will also have to be differentiated from previous movie versions. Every villain appearing in The Batman has appeared in some incarnation in previous Batman films, so Reeves and his team of actors will have to ensure their take on the characters are fresh. Here's everything The Batman's villains need to do differently to previous movie versions.
Paul Dano's Riddler Needs To Be Serious
detective skills more than any other Batman movie. It seems Pattinson's hero will therefore have to pit his intellectual capacities against one of the most cerebral villains in the rogues gallery. That is, as long as Dano veers sharply away from Jim Carrey's cartoonish take on The Riddler.
Appearing in 1995's Batman Forever has its fans, and is even considered underrated by some, its spandex-clad Riddler would undoubtedly derail the gritty and grounded tone Reeves looks to be aiming for with The Batman.
Fans have long-awaited a definitive on-screen version of the villain – one that plays up the character's intellectual prowess the clash between his mental capacity and Bruce Wayne's. At one point it seemed such a version would appear when Leonardo Dicaprio was rumored to be playing Reeves will be using Riddler's original name of Edward Nashton, foregoing the pun-based name The Riddler is most known by: Edward Nygma. That bodes well for an entirely "buffoonery"-free version of the character in The Batman.
The Penguin Needs To Be A Grounded Crime Boss
Backing up Dano's Riddler will be Colin Farrell's Penguin. Not counting Burgess Meredith's appearance in the 1966 Batman movie, Farrell's turn in the role of Oswald Cobblepot will be the second cinematic portrayal of the villain. Danny Devito famously played The Penguin in Tim Burton's 1992 effort Batman Returns can as a horror movie – making it controversial among some Batman fans – but Farrell will likely want to tone down the freakishness for his version.
In the comic books, The Penguin is usually depicted as a crime boss – something that was somewhat overlooked in Returns. With that in mind, Reeves and Farrell will likely want to play up that angle of the character in order to differentiate this version from Devito's. Such a change should work well within the world Reeves is creating, especially if The Penguin has a whole new look in The Batman. With John Turturro set to play infamous Gotham mobster Carmine Falcone, the movie will already deal with the theme of organized crime in some capacity. Having Farrell's Penguin engaged in some sort of gang war with Falcone would be a great way to differentiate this incarnation of the character from the malformed "penguin man of the sewer" that appeared in Returns.
With Reeves seemingly focused on a more realistic tale, there's very little chance Farrell will appear sporting black bile and flippers, so the tone of the movie itself likely won't allow for a portrayal similar to Devito's even if Farrell wanted to take it that direction. The Batman has the potential to revolutionize DC and as such, it will need to do everything it can to differentiate big villains like The Penguin, and making him a crime boss would be great way to do that. Let's just hope he doesn't appear with a dodgy London accent á la the Penguin of the Batman Arkham games.
Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman Should Avoid Burton's Bizarreness
A truly legendary performance as Catwoman/Selina Kyle from Michelle Pfieffer in Batman Returns will undoubtedly cast a shadow here, but Zoe Kravitz, who says she feels ed by previous Catwoman actors, has proven herself a capable performer in recent years. Pfieffer's turn as Catwoman was one of the best things about Returns, partly due to an eye-catching outfit but mostly due to Pfieffer's effortless switch from insecure embattled secretary to empowered dominatrix-inspired anti-heroine. Of course, being a Burton movie the character didn't come without her share of bizarre traits – most notably being able to survive a multistorey fall due to... cats chewing on her fingers. Kravitz will likely have to shed that kind of supernatural origin to fit into Reeve's grounded universe, and the outfit will need to be a little less stylized for the same reason.
Perhaps Reeves and Kravitz will try to steer their Catwoman more towards The Dark Knight Rises, at least in of practicality taking precedence over visual flair and feline-induced reincarnation. Kravitz would also do well to carry over some of the self-possessed energy of Hathaway's Catwoman but put her own spin on it. Hathaway's Selina Kyle was an independent woman, and more of that in 2021 will no doubt go down well with modern audiences. But Kravitz will have to find a way of depicting that independence of mind in a new way for The Batman. Otherwise, it's just a case of doing the opposite of Halle Berry's version and she should be good to go.
John Turturro's Carmine Falcone Needs To Be A Genuine Threat
Thus far, the only cinematic portrayal of mob boss Carmine Falcone has come from English actor Tom Wilkinson in Christopher Nolan's Batman's legendary rogues gallery, lacking any freakish or supernatural abilities as he is.
As such, it could prove difficult to make Falcone stand out among the other, more well-known villains in The Batman. It's certainly something that held Wilkinson's version of the character back. The Carmine Falcone of Begins was suitably dislikable, and Wilkinson did a decent job of conveying the character's nastiness, but he wasn't given enough screen time to make him a genuinely memorable Batman movie villain. What's more, he was depicted as more of a tool for the supervillains of Gotham to manipulate – specifically Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow who uses Falcone for his drug trafficking connections before he's captured by Batman and driven insane by Scarecrow's fear toxin. This time around, Reeves should give John Turturro enough scenes to justify his appearance in the movie and make him more of a genuine threat to Batman rather than a pawn of the rogues surrounding him.
