We're still not even sure there's room for Batman in Man of Steel 2, or Batman vs. Superman if you want to get fancy, but now apparently the Bats will be squeezing a lady friend somewhere into the story as well. Over at Latino Review they're hearing that a casting breakdown has gone out over Los Angeles hunting for a woman in her late 20s who's both tall and physically strong. It's unclear if the casting breakdown specifies that the character will be Batman's girlfriend, but that's definitely the assumption Latino Review is making, while acknowledging that, as for the Nolan-directed Batman movies, zero specifics about the character are being revealed. So, theoretically, this could be a casting call for the next Wonder Woman… or for the next Jenny Olsen.
So presuming the character is indeed a Batman love interest, who might it be? I'm assuming that Catwoman is out of the question, since rebooting Batman is tricky enough without also redoing the character memorably, recently played by someone very famous. How about Vicki Vale? As a reporter who's also dating a superhero she's an interesting parallel to Lois Lane, who we know is returning in Man of Steel 2, and she hasn't appeared onscreen since Kim Basinger played her in 1989's Batman. Latino Review also tosses out the idea of Julie Madison, a much less prominent love interest for Batman played, sort of, by Elle Macpherson in 1997's best-forgotten Batman & Robin. But there's no evidence that the character would be either of these familiar names-- or, indeed, a Batman love interest at all.
And there's still the problem of this movie technically being a Man of Steel sequel, needing both to continue Superman's story, introduce Batman, and pit the two against each other. Is there really time for a Batman love interest? The Nolan films seemed to slowly realize that a love interest wasn't all that necessary for Batman, first replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, then killing her in The Dark Knight-- raising the stakes of the action for Batman, sure, but also ridding him of a plot thread that he didn't seem to have time to address. He'll have even less time in Batman vs. Superman, which makes me wonder why director Zack Snyder would want to wrap a love interest in with all of that. Unless, hey, this is the way we finally get Wonder Woman on the screen?
Feel free to make that leap, or any others you like, in the comments. Batman vs. Superman isn't quite as big a mystery as Star Wars: Episode VII, but aside from Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in the lead roles, we've got a lot more guesses than actual facts at this point.
