The upcoming DC film The Batman Part II has officially revealed the fate of a major villain, and it should have a huge effect on the Dark Knight’s story. Though we’re still over a year away from the October 1, 2027 release date of The Batman Part II, some members of the creative team have already revealed key details about the long-awaited return of Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne. Those details include reveals about some of Gotham’s biggest villains.
Most notably, The Batman Part II will reportedly heavily feature Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face, and his family. Sebastian Stan is reportedly set to play Harvey in the cast of The Batman Part II, while Scarlett Johansson will play his wife and Charles Dance will play his father. Clearly, the film is going to dive deep into Harvey’s role as the district attorney for Gotham and his corruption into the villainous Two-Face.
While Harvey Dent and his family are seemingly going to be the main focus of The Batman Part II, other classic Batman villains are also set to appear in the sequel. The Batman Part II reportedly won’t feature the Joker, but crime families featured in the first film and in The Penguin, like the Falcones, will presumably be returning. Most importantly, Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobblepot is also set to reprise his role as the Penguin, and some new details about his return paint a very promising picture.
The Penguin Is Returning For The Batman Part II, But Only Briefly
During an interview with Screen Rant, Colin Farrell revealed that Oz Cobblepot will only be in two scenes of The Batman Part II. That’s a major step down from the Penguin’s previous screen time in The Batman and a major demotion from his rise to criminal infamy in his self-titled HBO series The Penguin. Evidently, The Batman Part II is putting even more focus on the Dent family than the first film put onto the Riddler.
Sure. Yeah, the whole thing. We haven’t gone to that place yet where somebody arrives with a titanium briefcase chain to their wrist and seven pages of only my scenes. I got to read from the first to last page and it’s really magnificent. I just think Matt Reeves is brilliant and he wrote, not only tonally, a really kind of dark and at times terrifying piece, and not only psychologically weighty and nuanced, but really feeling. It’s a really… There’s moments in it. It’s full of feeling. I just think he wrote kind of a contemporary genre masterpiece, really. I’m only in two scenes, which is great because it means I can enjoy the rest of the film.
Honestly, man, it’s so good. I’m so excited about it. I’m so excited for Matt and Dylan and Robert and the whole team.
Based on Farrell’s comments, it seems that the Penguin will be depicted much the same way in The Batman Part II as he was in the first film. In The Batman, Cobblepot acts as a supporting character and an unwilling informant for both Batman and Jim Gordon’s investigation into the Riddler. Presumably, he’ll be taking on the same role as Batman and Gordon investigate a new mystery surrounding Harvey Dent and other potential characters.
It should also be interesting to see how The Batman Part II handles the events of The Penguin miniseries. In that show, Cobblepot dethroned Sofia Falcone and became the kingpin of crime in Gotham. He’s not just some informant Batman can toss around anymore, he’s a major power player in the city’s underworld. Given his limited role, however, it seems Batman won’t be gunning for his criminal empire as much as running parallel to some of the Penguin’s dealings.
The Penguin’s Limited Role In The Batman Part II Is A Great Sign For Gotham
Colin Farrell’s portrayal of the Penguin was a fan-favorite part of The Batman, so his smaller role in the sequel seems like a disappointing update at face value. After all, very few people wanted less of Cobblepot, especially after the award-winning story he helmed in The Penguin and him finally coming into his element as a major villain. While it will be disappointing to miss out on some scenes of him, the Penguin’s reduced role is actually a great sign.
By bringing the Penguin back but in a more reduced capacity, The Batman Part II is solving a problem every Batman movie has had with the hero’s rogues’ gallery. In the comics, Batman’s villains are supposed to be facets of Gotham City and problems that never really get solved. Batman keeps beating them down, and they keep getting back up to escape Arkham Asylum and terrorize the city once again. They add flavor to Gotham and make the entire city feel alive.
Batman movies, however, don’t feature this side of his villains. From Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 to the Dark Knight trilogy and even The Batman, characters like the Joker, the Riddler, Ra’s al Ghul, and Mister Freeze get defeated and either die or are packed neatly into prison, never to be heard from again in sequels. The closest a live-action Batman movie has gotten to the enduring nature of the villains is Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow, who has cameos in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
Killing off villains or indefinitely imprisoning them allows sequels to be a lot more concise and focus on a new villain, but it also robs Batman’s rogues’ gallery of one of their core aspects. Batman’s villains constantly return to challenge his no-kill rule and make him consider whether he’s really doing what’s best for Gotham by having such a strict moral code. If they don’t return, Batman never has to reckon with his moral framework, and the movies lose out on a lot of tension and character development.
The Batman Part 2 Will Repeat A Winning Quality From Robert Pattinson’s First Movie
The Batman Part II is building its cast with more fantastic actors, and it’s repeating a characteristic that worked well for the first film.
Aside from the thematic implications of not bringing villains back between movies, there’s also an entertainment angle to consider. It’s, frankly, quite fun to see returning villains in new Batman stories. Knowing that Arkham is constantly letting inmates escape, that villains like the Riddler and the Joker are constantly terrorizing Gotham, adds a lot to the flavor and world-building of Gotham. It’s somewhat ridiculous, but so is a billionaire dressing up as a bat to fight crime. By bringing the Penguin back, even just for two scenes, The Batman Part II is letting itself be a bit fun and a bit more comic-accurate than other Batman movies.
