It’s a rule of thumb that too many villains is never a good idea when it comes to superhero blockbusters, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t seen it happen repeatedly, despite the evidence proving that too many cooks inevitably and very regularly spoil the broth.
Matt Reeves’ The Batman has a trio of major antagonists, all of whom will be getting origin stories, leading to some nervous speculation that the latest reboot for the Caped Crusader could end up being a little over-stuffed. Luckily, Colin Farrell has assuaged those doubts be revealing how much screentime he’s got in the movie, and it’s definitely a lot less than you might have thought.
“I’m only in it for five or six scenes, so I can’t wait to see the film because it won’t be ruined by my presence. Really, it’s a freebie to me. I’ll get a little bit uncomfortable for the f*cking nine minutes I have, and then the rest of it, I cannot wait to see how Matt Reeves brought this world to life.”
Five or six scenes does make a lot of sense when you think about it, though, with the majority of the footage we’ve seen so far painting Paul Dano’s Edward Nashton as the real big bad, with Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman filling Selina Kyle’s usual remit of flitting between friend and foe of the Caped Crusader depending on what suits her best in the moment.
Farrell’s Oswald Cobblepot is still rising up the ranks of the Gotham City criminal underworld, so it sounds like Reeves may be setting him up for much bigger things to come in the inevitable sequels. In the buildup towards production starting on The Batman we were hearing that there could be at least six bad guys if not even more, but three sounds like a much more manageable number without having to shift the focus too far away from the title hero.
After all, The Batman picks up with Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne in his second year on the job as the nocturnal vigilante, and it would be interesting to see his rise coincide and unfold in sync with that of the Penguin across multiple films.