Last week it was announced that not only has Robert Pattinson signed on to play Batman, but that he received a three picture contract and that Matt Reeves will be doing a trilogy. I didn’t really want to talk about this until it was confirmed from the direct source, and Matt Reeves himself took to Twitter earlier to confirm Pattinson as Batman!
So with that being said, here is what I would like to see happen for each movie in the trilogy, the trilogy as a whole in terms of what Reeves should do, and who should appear throughout the movies with who I want to be cast.
Cast
For castings I chose three actors and actresses that I’d like to see in these roles, with the first option being my #1 choice for each…
Batman: Robert Pattinson
Alfred Pennyworth: Liam Cunningham, Ralph Fiennes or Hugh Laurie
The Joker: Willem Dafoe, Joseph Gilgun or Finn Wittrock
Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie
Hush: Tom Hopper, Donald Glover or Daniel Radcliffe
Lucius Fox: Mahershala Ali, Chris Chalk or Lennie James
Catwoman: Gina Rodriguez, Eiza Gonzalez or Olivia Wilde
Deathstroke: Joe Manganiello
Commissioner Gordon: JK Simmons, Bryan Cranston or Michael Keaton
Batgirl: Jane Levy, Alison Brie or Zoe Kravitz
Clayface: Toby Kebbell, Luke Evans or Ron Perlman
Hugo Strange: Josh Stewart, Donald Sutherland or Andy Serkis
The Riddler: David Tennant, Sebastian Stan or Nicholas Hoult
Poison Ivy: Christina Hendricks, Jessica Chastain or Vanessa Kirby
Scarecrow: Pedro Pascal, Jackie Earle Haley or Adrien Brody
Bane: Richard Armitage, Javier Bardem or Nathan Jones
Harvey Bullock: Mark Addy, John Goodman or Danny McBride
Two Face: Oscar Isaac, Matt Damon or Eddie Redmayne
Killer Croc: Ron Perlman, Peter Mensah or Michael K. Williams
Mad Hatter: Timothy Spall, Toby Jones or Simon Pegg
Ra’s al Ghul: Sean Bean, get Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement, or Jason Isaacs
Mr. Freeze: Stanley Tucci, Josh Brolin or Ed Harris
Lady Shiva: Gemma Chan, Elodie Yung or Pom Klementieff
Penguin: Nick Frost, Paul Dano or Josh Gad
Carmine Falcone: Charles Dance, Steve Buscemi or Harvey Keitel
The characters that I want to see are some of Batman’s most formidable foes and some of his best allies. A villain like Clayface has been brushed aside for years. In the DC Rebirth he was made a hero until, SPOILER ALERT, Batwoman kills him. When made the main villain of a comic book story, he is outstanding. The Mud Pack is a vastly underrated Batman story that follows Clayface and some newfound “clay” allies of his as they terrorize Gotham.
Lady Shiva is another villain who hasn’t appeared in the movies yet who is essentially a female Deathstroke. Her fighting ability is amazing, and her tandem with Batman is also fun to read. Then there’s a villain like Two Face who was done poorly in a movie, same with the Riddler, that needs to be given another chance on the big screen.
An ally like Batgirl and Lucius Fox should be considered. I would love for The Batman to incorporate Barbra Gordon aka Batgirl and make her a similar age to Bruce Wayne where maybe the two have been friends for years and they both decide to become vigilantes.
Lucius Fox was played perfectly before by Morgan Freeman in the Nolan trilogy with Christian Bale. Mahershala Ali would easily be able to replicate that, and maybe suit up as Batwing instead of his son? No, I doubt that would happen. Or am I?
It has been said that the first film in the trilogy will have the Penguin, sadly, be the main villain. I say sadly because: 1) I am not a huge Penguin fan, and 2) Batman has more villains to use as the main villain than one that we have seen before. On the bright side, Matt Reeves has revealed that his interpretation of Batman will incorporate his elite detective skills! That makes me extremely happy to know. As someone who is a huge fan of British Mystery shows, and just murder mystery shows/movies in general, Batman is my favorite detective. Moviegoers would never know that Batman is not only a detective, but the greatest one ever created! His skills are just that elite. Hearing that a lot of villains will appear in this movie, and that his detective skills will be utilized, I wonder if the movie will be based off of Batman: The Long Halloween which features a villain who goes by the name Holiday as she kills someone on every major US holiday for a year. Batman eventually finds out who she is, and puts a stop to her murderous ways.
So for the first movie, I just want it to “world build”, and by world build I mean build up the Batman world. Introduce a whole lot of villains where we might see one or two in the sequel, and another one or two in the third movie. I would love for Batman to NOT don the cape and cowl until the final 30 or so minutes of the movie. Matt Reeves has said that, “Bruce will be finding his footing as a crime fighting detective.” So maybe within the first 30 minutes of the film Bruce will done a prototype suit while Alfred and Lucius Fox work on an actual suit that we don’t see until the final 30 minutes. Bruce insists that he needs to go out and fight with a cheesy one in the meantime, and this is when we see Alfred not being fully content with Bruce’s decision to be a vigilante.
In terms of his detective work, I’d love for, if he is in fact the main villain, Oswald Cobblepot to come onto the scene by murdering Carmine Falcone. A part of Batman the Animated Series that I really enjoyed, was how the villains’ henchmen called their bosses “boss.” So I don’t want the Penguin to wear his comic book attire. I want him to be a normal looking guy who just wears a white shirt and a black hoodie and we don’t get a clear look at his face until mid-movie when Batman confronts him after finding out that he is Oswald Cobblepot, he then says, “Wrong sir! I am the Penguin!”, then they fight towards the end while the two are wearing their respected costumes. The movie should also explore Batman and Catwoman’s relationship. Maybe not romantically, yet, but have her working with the Penguin, her and Batman run into one another, we see how both are enamored by one another, and by movie’s end she crosses onto the line of hero and is more heroic.
From what I can gather, this movie is going to be a mystery. Rather that be like The Long Halloween, Hush, or Penguin murdering Carmine Falcone or something else entirely. That being said we are in for a real treat as Matt Reeves is a great writer and director while actor Robert Pattinson is a rising elite star in Hollywood.
As for the second film, I would love for Batman: Hush to be adapted. To see, yet again, Batman use his detective skills to find out who is messing with people close to him. Instead of using the Riddler as a pawn in the story’s plot, use someone new that we haven’t see before, such as Clayface or the Mad Hatter who’d be ideal as him and the Riddler are similar. I also want Batman and Catwoman’s relationship to enhance in this one. Maybe they share a kiss and whatnot? I’d like for whoever is cast as Dick Grayson in The Batman, to fully start working in the field with Batman in this movie. Batman is gritty, so whoever plays Robin will inevitably be light in tone for this portrayal so that way the movie isn’t completely dark. Robin can be comic relief AND dark himself at the same time, or not really dark, I just mean similar to Batman with their tendencies and whatnot. Kind of of like how he is as Nightwing in Under the Red Hood and Young Justice where he is very similar to Batman, but makes jokes occasionally, is lighter and happier.
For the final film in the trilogy I would love to see it maybe be a 5-year time jump from the second film. Dick is older and we see how he is realizing that being a sidekick isn’t what he wants to do forever and that Batman is training Jason Todd and Barbara Gordon. In this film, the Joker should be the villain. To have a Batman trilogy and not use the Joker in one of those films as the main villain would be fine by me, but is shouldn’t happen. He’s too big, and great, to not have him in. Willem Dafoe maybe? Dafoe and Pattinson are coming off of the highly anticipated movie The Lighthouse where the two have reportedly formed a good relationship… After dealing with disputes with the director in between scenes that sometimes caused the two to get into it. But they could let some of that anger out while going toe to toe with one another as the Batman and Joker!
If Nightwing and Batigirl are indeed getting their own movies still… The third film in this Batman trilogy should set up their own movies. Have Joss Whedon, who is directing Batgirl, and have Chris McKay, who is writing and directing Nightwing, be hands on with Reeves in how the two are used in the trilogy. There are so many avenues that Matt Reeves could follow with his trilogy and I am just beyond excited to see how he tackles this iconic character that so many people have been in love with for 80-years now.
You can see The Batman in theaterson June 25, 2021
Superhero Dynasty 