Photo: Cinema Blend
With the upcoming installment of “The Batman,” American filmmaker Matt Reeves wants to create a new ‘Bat-verse’ as an offshoot of this world he has materialized.
The film follows Dark Knight’s second year – portrayed by Robert Pattinson – a murder mystery that involves familiar characters from the canon: the Riddler (played by Paul Dano), a serial killer that preys on Gotham’s corrupt aristocrats; Selene Kyle (portrayed by Zoë Kravitz), who will later set off as Catwoman; and the Penguin (played by Colin Farrell), aka Oswald Cobblepot, who is just a mid-tier mob lieutenant in the film and has not even reached a good enough villain achievement.
“The Batman” was created as a separate entity from DC’s already existing universe (DCEU); director Reeves has been thinking of ways to expand this outside cinema screens.
Two new series set in the iconic Batman universe have been announced, one being a police drama for Gotham City. The other follows Penguin’s rise to power. It will be executive produced by Reeves himself.
“What I really wanted this movie to do is create a Batverse,” Reeves told a media outlet. “You don’t do a story and go, ‘This is Chapter 1’ because you might not get to do Chapter 2. So, the story had to stand on its own. But the thing about it is that the Bat world is so rich with character that as you’re starting to come to an end, you can already start thinking about the next thing. Because the idea, of course, is that Gotham’s story never ends.”
According to Reeves, the Penguin show popped out of the discussions with HBO Max, which wanted more than sideline characters from the film.
“I was thrilled by that,” Reeves says. “I said [to HBO Max], ‘To be honest with you, the thing that was going to be the seeds of what I thought the next story could be in terms of the Penguin is that I saw there being this kind of ‘American dream in Gotham’ sort of story, almost like “Scarface;” the rise of this character who we all know will achieve mythic status.’ He is underestimated, and he’s like a time bomb … They were like, ‘Oh my God, we’re in!’ And that was really exciting because, by that point, Colin had already given life to this character.”
We can’t wait to see what these projects have in store for us. From the sounds of it, they are going to be pretty interesting.
“The Batman” will premiere on March 4.
