Matt Reeves has been hard at work assembling a tantalizing ensemble for his relaunch of the Dark Knight franchise, tentatively titled The Batman (we’d love for WB to confirm that title… or call it something else). The director has used social to confirm the characters that several cast members will play, but there was a cloud of mystery swirling around Colin Farrell as to who he was going to play. We’ve had a couple of significant Batman villains confirmed, and now we can add The Penguin to the list. Here’s how Matt Reeves let the cat – or the bird – out of the bag.
The hashtag #Oz in the Matt Reeves Twitter post refers (we are assuming) to Oswald Cobblepot, the actual name of the vintage DC villain, The Penguin. The way that Reeves phrases the Tweet – posing it as a question with a shrugging Colin Farrell from the brilliant dark comedy In Bruges – means that we will still treat this ever so slightly as a possible deception. But we’re feeling pretty confident that this post means Farrell is definitely playing a version of The Penguin in The Batman.
Who is he joining? At the moment, The Penguin will be the fourth DC villain announced for Matt Reeves’ movie. We also know that Zoe Kravitz has been cast as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. Additionally, Paul Dano has been cast as Edward Nashton, aka The Riddler. And finally, the great John Turtutto (!!) will be playing Carmine Falcone, a crime boss who has appeared on screen before, but has largely been underused when compared to the amount of story he gets in the DC comics and graphic novels.
So much for the criticism that the worst Batman movies, in the past, have suffered from having too many villains.
The best part, in my opinion, is that there doesn’t seem to be one major villain for the new Batman, Robert Pattinson, to face down. This leaves a number of fascinating questions for the type of story that Reeves is trying to bring to the big screen. You don’t cast actors of the caliber of Farrell, Kravitz, Dano and Turturro for small supporting parts. But juggling all of them now falls to Reeves, a director who at least has proven himself to be a tremendous storyteller in the Planet of the Apes trilogy, Cloverfield and Let Me In. In Reeves we currently trust.
It also signifies that the cast trusts in Reeves, and the script that he is presenting to them. But it’s going to take a long time until we get there. Right now, The Batman is scheduled to drop on June 25, 2021. Want to stay up to date on the 2020 release schedule? Make sure that you bookmark our calendar, and check it often.
