If THE BATMAN Is Truly Based On THE LONG HALLOWEEN, These Are The Characters That Still Need To Be Cast

If THE BATMAN Is Truly Based On THE LONG HALLOWEEN, These Are The Characters That Still Need To Be Cast

From its inception, The Batman has been heavily rumored to be inspired by the events of The Long Halloween, and with Catwoman, Carmine Falcone, Riddler and Penguin confirmed, it sure seems to be true.

Feature Opinion
By MarkJulian - Dec 30, 2019 09:12 AM EST
Filed Under: The Batman
From its inception, The Batman has been heavily rumored to be inspired by the events in The Long Halloween and with Catwoman, Carmine Falcone, Riddler and Penguin confirmed, it sure seems to be true.

Batman: The Long Halloween is a 1996, 13-issue limited series from longtime Marvel exec  Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale. While not an origin tale, it takes place during the early days of The Dark Knight's crime fighting career and follows the Caped Crusader on a quest to prevent a mysterious serial killer who strikes on national holidays. If that motif immediately brings to mind Calendar Man, your thinking coincides with the Dark Knight. The only problem is that Julian Day has been locked up in Arkham Asylum each time the "Holiday killer" strikes.  

The miniseries is noteworthy as it recounts how several infamous Batman rogues transitioned from low level perpetrators to full-fledged supervillains. Playing prominent roles in the series are a host of villains that have already been cast in The Batman, including Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and Carmine Falcone. While these characters have all appeared in various Batman movies over the years, they've never appeared together, in one film. Even in the comics, these characters don't appear in a storyline outside of The Long Halloween or its loose sequel, Batman: Dark Victory.

This particular grouping and Reeve's previous statement that The Batman will be a "noir-driven, detective version of Batman" emphasizing the heart and mind of the character and taking inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock" (an apt description of The Long Halloween) suggest that Reeves is indeed crafting a close adaptation of The Long Halloween, and if that's the case, there's some key characters that still need to be cast. 

Click the Next button below for a rundown along with a description of the role they play in the story.

Alberto Falcone

 


 
At the center of the long Halloween is a mob war between the Falcone and Maroni crime families. John Turturro was recently cast to portray Carmine Falcone, but it's Carmine's son Alberto who plays a key role in the story.  

Sal Maroni

 


In The Long Halloween, Sal Maroni is the son of  Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni and the heir-apparent of the Maroni family. The character previously appeared in Chirstopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, portrayed by Eric Roberts. In The Long Halloween the war between the Maronis and Falcones intensifies due to the Holiday killings (each family believes Holiday works for the other) and results in each employing "Gotham freaks" like Poison Ivy and Riddler as enforcers.

Harvey Dent



The Long Halloween is infamous for portraying an origin story for Harvey Den'ts Two-Face. A Gotham City DA hellbent on bringing the city's two ruling crime family's to justice (by any means), Dent's psychotic nature bubbles to the surface as the Holiday killer continues to elude Batman and the Gotham City Police Department. Recently, Peter Saarsgard joined the cast in a mystery role, leading some to speculate that he's our Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face.

Solomon Grundy

 


 Solomon Grundy makes a brief but memorable appearance in The Long Halloween, first tussling with Batman and then encountering Harvey Dent in the Gotham City sewers as he hid from Gotham law enforcement.  A similar appearance on screen would be a cool moment and serve to distinguish Reeves' film from past big screen Batman iterations that haven't really introduced any supernatural elements.     

Poison Ivy

 


Poison Ivy becomes employed by the Falcones, as they need to force Bruce Wayne to allow them to launder their money through Gotham City Bank. With Bruce heading the board of the bank, he becomes the target of Ivy's mind controlling pheromones. Bruce Wayne is able to break free thanks to Catwoman, although Ivy escapes during the confusion. The green-skinned supervillain later turns up in an epic moment that serves to illustrate that control of the Gotham underworld no longer resides with the Maroni or Falcone crime families and now belongs to the costumed freaks.

Mad Hatter

 


 
The Mad Hatter becomes employed by the Falcones and teams up with Scarecrow. Later on, he rises up with Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, Joker and Catwoman to overthrow the Falcones- a moment that signifies that Gotham now belongs to the "freaks."

Scarecrow 

 


 Like Mad Hatter, Scarecrow is employed by the Falcones and rises up with Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy, Joker and Catwoman to overthrow the Falcones- a moment that signifies that Gotham now belongs to the "freaks."

The Joker

 


The Joker appears fairly early on in Batman's investigation. It seems the Clown Prince of Crime is upset that there's now two homicidal maniacs in Gotham. He goes on a random killing spree before enacting a plan to kill a large number of people in Gotham Square in the hopes that one of them will be the Holiday killer. Luckily, he's thwarted by Batman before he can complete the dastardly deed.   

The Joker escapade is largely a diversion and doesn't really add much to the limited series, and with Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix both portraying the Batman rogue in recent years, it's hard to see WB introducing a third version of the character. It could be that Reeves is substituting Joker with Firefly, a character that never appeared in the Long Halloween but was featured earlier this year in a casting call for the film.

Calendar Man

 


Calendar Man plays a Hannibal Lecter type role in the story as Batman routinely visits him in Arkham Asylum to get his assessment on the holiday killings. Calendar Man cooperates because he's fearful that the Holiday killer will upstage him, using his own motif. His scenes with Batman could either be played for comedic relief or posses disturbingly sinister undertones. It will be interesting to see which direction Reeves takes the character (if he's included).

Gilda Dent

 


   Perhaps the most pivotal role of all in the story, who WB and Reeves cast to portray Harvey Dent's wife just might make or break the film.
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Kman
Kman - 12/30/2019, 9:38 AM
I'm not sure this will be heavily tied to the actual plot of Long Halloween as much as it takes certain elements - like the murder mystery aspect and the use of multiple villains.

This is one of my most hyped though... even this early.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 12/30/2019, 10:43 AM
@Kman - I would really love it if WB somehow got their act together and bridge this with The Joker. Make Joker in his 60s in Arkham taunting Batman and kind of playing a Hannibal Lector type of role.

And make Joker Chapter 2 end with a Batman in his 20s apprehending him.
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 12/30/2019, 10:50 AM
@Kman -
Exactly. This film will most likely borrow from The Long Halloween in the same way that The Dark Knight, Gotham Season 4, Batman: Arkham Origins, and other "adaptations" did. It will lean into elements from that story and that's about it.

Also, from what I have been hearing, this movie will have more in common with Dark Victory than The Long Halloween. It's is a detective-driven mystery in Batman's early years with a full rogues gallery and a mysterious main antagonist. That's probably 80% of the Long Halloween influence this movie will have right there.
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 12/30/2019, 10:54 AM
@SonOfAGif -
That's impossible. For one, Joaquin Phoenix doesn't do franchises. He's an indie actor who only does specific projects that interest him, which is why Joker 2 is very far from being a guarantee (even with $1 billion).

Second, Joker only really works as it's own universe. Trying to integrate it into a traditional comic book franchise would only cheapen it. Plus, you would have to recast Joaquin Phoenix to even have Batman fight the Joker to begin with.
Kman
Kman - 12/30/2019, 11:04 AM
@SonOfAGif - I have to agree with @Darkknight2149 - I don't see it happening.
PicolasCage
PicolasCage - 12/30/2019, 9:41 AM
Highly unlikely.
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 12/30/2019, 9:44 AM
Just came here to say Batman in Arkham Knight might be the biggest asshole of any Batman adaptation, including TDKR.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 12/30/2019, 10:03 AM
@OmegaDaGrodd - that game sucked so much I can't even remember. What did he do?
Darkknight2149
Darkknight2149 - 12/30/2019, 10:59 AM
@OmegaDaGrodd -
Not even close.





tmp3
tmp3 - 12/30/2019, 11:27 AM
@MyCoolYoung - Did it though? It's not on the level of Arkham City or Asylum, and the car bits were clunky, but it's still got great combat and gameplay
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 12/30/2019, 11:47 AM
@tmp3 - maybe. The batmobile stuff was really distracting and the story was mediocre.

Sucked might be an exaggeration but after 3 great batman games(I do think origins was. Best boss fights though I know it's Montreal and not rocksteady) it really felt like a major let down.

It might have been impossible for it to live up to the hype. I felt city was one of the best games I've ever played so my hype levels were tremendous.

I remember being so excited and my nephew broke the tray on my g
Ps4. At the time I only bought physical disc so it was a really big deal for me to buy digital games. I held off getting my tray fixed just to play that game and I just remember being disappointed.

I should try to play it again now that I'm away from the hype
tmp3
tmp3 - 12/30/2019, 11:50 AM
@MyCoolYoung - I agree that it's a disappointment, but there are so many games that are fundamentally broken that a "good, but not great" Batman game didn't let me down that hard; especially compared to most superhero games at the time, lol
WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 12/30/2019, 9:47 AM
Just 543 days left.
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