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
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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.