Did The Batman: Part II Just Get Spoiled By Accident?
The mystery surrounding Two-Face grows even deeper.
Despite being one of the most successful films of 2022 and arguably the most acclaimed superhero film of the 2020s so far, the journey to getting a sequel for The Batman has been a surprisingly long one. The first film in Matt Reeves’ so-called “Batman Epic Crime Saga,” it introduced the world to Robert Pattinson’s depiction of the Dark Knight and kicked off a new cinematic interpretation of the character shortly before fans would say goodbye to Ben Affleck’s Batman with The Flash a year later. Like Christopher Nolan’s prior The Dark Knight saga, Matt Reeves opted for a grounded street-level Batman story, and also like Nolan he’s envisioned an entire trilogy for his version of Gotham’s protector.
Unfortunately, by the time The Batman Part 2 lands in theaters in 2028, it’ll be a whole six years after the release of the first movie. Just like the original, Part 2 has been plagued by setbacks and delays, with the most recent involving Reeves stepping down from the production process with Steven Soderbergh filling in to finish shooting. The good news is that despite the delays, the movie is still shrouded in mystery and will likely stay that way until fans can see it on the big screen for themselves…although one of the film’s pervading mysteries might have just been answered by a completely unexpected source.
Back in June, when filming officially started, Matt Reeves treated fans to a glimpse of the film’s first shot.
On Sunday, the Twitter account @TheBatmanSagaNW reported that some potentially major details from The Batman Part 2 could be spotted in the background of a post from Heidi Klum’s Halloween makeup team. The actress and model is known for extravagant yearly Halloween costumes, frequently courtesy of Oscar-nominated SFX makeup artist Mike Marino, who is also responsible for Colin Farrell’s transformation into Oz Cobb, aka the Penguin, in both The Batman and its TV spinoff The Penguin. Marino confirmed he was working on the sequel last month in an interview with W Magazine, and that confirmation casts immense speculation on a photo he shared of Klum’s costume this year (a giant severed hand), because in the background of the photo looks to be a prosthetic mold of actor Brian Tyree Henry with some incredibly familiar facial scarring, as well as some other obscured props relating to “Owls” and “Zsasz.”
Back in June, reporter Jeff Sneider dropped a rumor that Sebastian Stan’s casting in The Batman Part 2 was actually an elaborate bait-and-switch: the actor who everyone believed would be playing Harvey Dent was actually cast as the sociopathic serial killer Victor Zsasz, and Gotham’s district attorney turned disfigured mob boss would actually be played by Atlanta alumni Brian Tyree Henry. While it seemed hard to believe at first, Marino’s photograph seems like soft confirmation that the rumor was true — but it also serves as potential evidence to support the theory that the Court of Owls will actually be appearing in the film, which has been an on-again/off-again bit of speculation as far back as the first movie.
With over a full year left to go until the movie releases there are naturally still a ton of mysteries swirling around the project, from the identity of Charles Dance and Scarlett Johansson’s characters to the long-lasting and unconfirmed rumor that Battinson might still end up part of James Gunn’s DCU, but this accidental leak does at least add some serious evidence to a few of the film’s most persistent questions.
