As filming on The Batman - Part II moves to Glasgow, Scotland, we have confirmation that the working title of Matt Reeves' highly anticipated sequel is indeed "Semper Vigilans."
This was previously reported via a production weekly listing, but the site has shared false or outdated information in the past.
The title translates to "Always Vigilant" or "Ever Watchful," and has fuelled speculation that the movie will introduce the Court of Owls.
In the comics, the nursery rhyme associated with the villainous group reads: “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.”
A recent (and since deleted) Reddit post claimed that The Batman 2 will include a scene with Bruce Wayne interacting with a member of the Court of Owls at a masquerade ball.
We have no way of knowing if this is accurate, but taking this, the working title, and several other details that have filtered through into account, we wouldn't bet against the sinister organization making its debut in the sequel.
Earlier this year, Reeves officially announced the movie's main cast on social media.
The filmmaker confirmed that Robert Pattinson (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Jeffrey Wright (Jim Gordon), Andy Serkis (Alfred Pennyworth), Colin Farrell (Oz Cobb/The Penguin), Jayme Lawson (Bella Réal) and Gil Perez-Abraham (Officer Martinez) will reprise their roles, alongside new cast members Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Charles Dance, Sebastian Koch and Brian Tyree Henry.
Reeves did not reveal the characters Gotham City's new additions will play, but we had been led to believe that Stan has been cast as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Johansson as his wife, Gilda, and Dance as his father, Christopher.
Rumors soon circulated that this may not be the case, however, as The Hot Mic's Jeff Sneider said he'd heard that Stan is playing a different villain entirely, while Dance has been cast as the father of Johansson's character. More recently, Sneider followed up by claiming that Stan will actually play twisted serial killer Victor Zsasz, and Brian Tyree Henry will play Harvey Dent.
More recently, we heard that Johansson is set to portray a "serial killer obsessed with plants, who uses toxins to carry out her crimes" (surely Poison Ivy). Her main target is said to be Charles Dance's character, "the leader of a secret organization made up of the most powerful figures in the city" (the Court of Owls, no doubt).
If Johansson is playing a version of Pamela Isley, it may lend credence to another recent rumor that DC Studios is developing a live-action Poison Ivy series set in the same universe as The Batman movies and HBO's The Penguin.
After several previous delays, The Batman - Part II was scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 1, 2027, but was recently pushed back to February 18, 2028.