The Batman put the spotlight on The Riddler and, to a lesser extent, The Penguin. The Joker also made a cameo appearance, and all three are villains who have been featured in the Caped Crusader's previous movies.
The hope was that The Batman: Part II might do something different, with filmmaker Matt Reeves hinting as much earlier this year. That's led to speculation about villains like Hush and Phantasm, but it appears the sequel will return to a familiar well: Batman: The Long Halloween.
According to Jeff Sneider, Scarlett Johansson will play Gilda Gold, a.k.a. Gilda Dent, in The Batman: Part II. Like most DC Comics characters, there have been multiple interpretations of Gilda over the years, but the most famous was revealed as the Holiday Killer in the pages of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween.
Hoping to lighten her husband's workload, Gilda started murdering Gotham City's criminals. However, her actions led to Harvey being attacked and becoming Two-Face, turning one of Batman's greatest allies into perhaps the most twisted member of his rogues gallery.
How much of that we'll see in The Batman: Part II is TBD, but Sneider has also learned that Reeves is looking to cast Harvey and his father, Christopher. The latter character is who Brad Pitt was offered the chance to play; he ultimately passed. An actor in his 60s is being sought for the elder Dent, with someone in their 40s wanted for the District Attorney who eventually becomes Two-Face.
On the page, Christopher Dent was an alcoholic who suffered from mental illness, leading him into a violent and physically abusive relationship with his son.
There continues to be speculation that Robert Pattinson's Batman will join the DCU, though both Reeves and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn have repeatedly indicated otherwise.
It makes little sense to have two versions of Bruce Wayne in theaters at roughly the same time. If we are getting an adaptation of The Long Halloween, that's going to make it even harder for Andy Muschietti to put a spin on the character in The Brave and the Bold that stands a chancde of competing with what Reeves is doing in the Batverse.
"We haven't talked about anything like that," Reeves previously said of The Batman joining the DCU lineup. "We have had conversations about how things could work and all that kind of stuff, just in general. So, of course, it would be a lot of fun. What I really want to do is play out these stories that we began and arrive at the conclusion I've hoped we would arrive at from the beginning. It's very exciting."
"First of all, I'm flattered. That's very kind of James to say. It would be really exciting to work with them, of course. We're working with them on [The Batman Part II]," the filmmaker continued. "I mean, it's a DC, so, like, it's Elseworld, but it is DC, so it's theirs as well. What the future brings and what I am doing will become clear when it comes."
Directed by Matt Reeves from a script by him and Mattson Tomlin, The Batman: Part II stars Robert Pattinson, Scarlett Johansson, Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis, and Jeffrey Wright.
The Batman Part II is set to be released in theaters on October 1, 2027.