When any film featuring The Batman begins to head into production, one of the first questions on peoples’ minds is always which villain – or villains – will the Caped Crusader be facing off against. After all, folks have always been fascinated by the evildoers running around Gotham City ever since the TV series starring Adam West first aired during the 1960’s. And in the time since, many different actors have put their own stamp on a variety of antagonists.
Over the past few months, the Penguin has been heavily rumored to be the chief baddie in The Batman, and it’s looking likely that that’ll pan out. Still, director Matt Reeves will be looking to mine the rich 80-year history of publication enjoyed by the Caped Crusader for all it’s worth and as such, we’ve been hearing that Oswald Cobblepot won’t arrive alone to the party.
Confirming this was Reeves himself, in fact, who revealed the following while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year:
“There will be a Rogues Gallery [of villains]. The casting process will begin shortly. We’re starting to put together our battle plan. I’m doing another pass on the script and we’ll begin some long-lead stuff to start developing conceptual things.”
And though a Rogues Gallery can encompass any number of villains, the folks over at Batman On Film claim that the movie will actually feature four different antagonists. Unfortunately, the wouldn’t say who they would be, or if all four would have large roles, but this is still pretty interesting to consider.
After all, we’ve seen a number of instances in the past where having too many villains has been the downfall of a comic book movie and pushing it past two, or even three, is certainly risky. As such, we imagine that not all four villains in The Batman will have equal roles, with perhaps only one of them being the primary baddie while the others just serve more as henchmen.
In any case, with the film heading into production this fall, hopefully it won’t be too much longer now before we learn of who exactly the Dark Knight will be going up against.