It’s been a big week for fresh developments on Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and with new information comes a stream of new and updated fan theories speculating on how the Caped Crusader’s next film could play out.
Just take this recent suggestion from ComicBook.com that the Warner Bros. flick might be finding inspiration from the 13-issue limited series The Long Halloween. Written by Jeph Loeb and published in 1996 and 1997, this popular saga sees Bruce Wayne in his relatively early days of crime-fighting as he attempts to track down a mysterious killer known as Holiday, who claims his victims on holidays throughout the year. Batman’s detective work sees him crossing paths with a series of familiar villains, including the Joker, the Penguin, Scarecrow, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, the Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy, the Riddler and Two-Face.
Though Matt Reeves mentioned last year that his movie won’t be a straightforward adaptation of any particular comic, there’s still a pretty compelling case to be made that some of the elements from The Long Halloween may factor into The Batman. For one thing, Reeves has singled out this story as one of his favorites from the comics, and mentioned just a few days ago that the upcoming film will see the Dark Knight “in his detective mode.”
On top of that, we’ve been hearing reports for a long time now that The Batman will take us back to the hero’s younger days, while Reeves himself has said that his flick will feature a “Rogues Gallery” of villains, suggesting that the Warner Bros. movie and The Long Halloween will have at least a few things in common. Of course, this is still just speculation for the time being, but we’ll have plenty of time to get some clarification on the matter before the film hits theaters on June 25th, 2021.