The new Batman full of star names

Robert Pattinson’s 2022 Batman followed the recipe of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in 2019, moving away from the classic superhero spectacle to a film that mixed crime elements with social commentary and psychological drama. Of course, the latter did not mean that there was a lack of scenes when the most famous detective hunts down, interrogates and, if necessary, beats criminals from Gotham, but therefore Batman, directed by the American Matt Reeves, was a more down-to-earth film with all the attributes of a classic detective film.

A sequel was never in question, earning more than $770 million at Warner on a budget of $185 million to $200 million. The release of the sequel – originally titled The Batman: Part II in English – has been postponed several times, most recently to October 1, 2027. After the great success of the previous film, fans have been wondering for years where the story of the sequel should turn. The revelations of the new players further fueled the speculation. While it was clear from the first news about the film that Pattinson (Twilight, Mickey 17) will return in the title role, that the faithful servant Alfred will once again be Englishman Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings, War for the Planet of the Apes) and that the Penguin will again be portrayed by the Irishman Colin Farrell (Souls of the Island, Killer on the Collective), Reeves has revealed many new star names of the cast in recent weeks on social networks. Among them is the American star Scarlett Johansson, who played Black Widow in Marvel’s superhero films for almost a decade. The film will also see Sebastian Stan, who jumped into the role of the Winter Soldier for Marvel, and last year impressed as a young Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice. For example, Charles Dance, who played Lord Tywin Lannister in the Game of Thrones series. It is unofficially speculated that Stan will play Harvey Dent, a district attorney who becomes a criminal himself after an acid accident that destroys half of his face. Johansson is set to play his wife Gilda Dent, and Dance is set to play Christopher Dent. Such roles have already been attributed to the actors on the IMDb film portal, but Warner has not yet officially confirmed this.

The film will most likely directly continue the events of the HBO series The Penguin, in which the Penguin rises to become one of Gotham’s top crime bosses. Reeves, who continues to remain faithful to the dark and down-to-earth version of Gotham in the midst of a moral and economic crisis, has repeatedly emphasized that he wants to continue the story in the same tone and explore the psychological side of Bruce Wayne, who acted as a young, angry and emotionally somewhat unstable Batman in the first film. It seems that we will see more supervillains again in the film, as some media reports that Barry Keoghan, who was briefly seen towards the end of the first film, is returning in the role of the Joker. Although the studio is still keeping key story details under wraps, the Batman sequel is already considered one of the most anticipated superhero blockbusters of the coming years.