‘The Batman 2’ Will Include Colin Farrell’s Penguin but Not Gentleman Ghost Because ‘We Would Never Go Into Full Fantastical,’ Says Matt Reeves
Matt Reeves confirmed to SFX magazine that “we’re finishing up the script now” for “The Batman Part II” and “the plan is to shoot next year.” Warner Bros. announced earlier this year that the release for the Robert Pattinson-starring sequel was being delayed an entire year from Oct. 3, 2025 to Oct. 2, 2026.
“Colin [Farrell] will be part of the movie,” Reeves said about the Penguin’s return. “We’ve shared [the script] as we’ve been going along with DC and the studio and they’re super excited.”
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“The Batman” universe is expanding with the upcoming Farrell-centric television series “The Penguin,” which Reeves said will be the “entry point” into “The Batman 2″ and added: “There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters that world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case.”
As for “The Batman” sequel, the director said it’s “going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie, and it expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see.”
“Batman is constantly battling these forces. But those forces can’t be entirely exorcised. So the next movie delves deeper into that,” he added.
The Penguin will be back in the new movie, but whether or not more Batman villains pop up remains to be seen. Fans have called for Reeves to add the supernatural villain Gentleman Ghost to the sequel, but he told SFX that will not be happening as it does not fit with his grounded take on the comics.
“What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythical characters that everybody knows, and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world,” Reeves said. “We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded.”
Reeves continued, “It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do. Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.”
“The Batman” was a box office hit with $772 million globally, so Warner Bros. surely hoping lighting strikes twice with the sequel. It’s unknown at this time if original stars Zoe Kravitz (Catwoman) or Andy Serkis (Alfred Pennyworth) will also be back for the sequel.
“The Penguin” television series, meanwhile, launches Sept. 19 on Max.
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