Speaking of that particular devil, some wild stuff hit Twitter today, and I felt like I really needed to address it, and not because it made me overly happy. DC and Warner Brothers released a deleted scene from The Batman which features Barry Keoghan of Eternals, The Green Knight, and Dunkirk as a new interpretation of The Joker. I have to say right now, I actually really like this performance. It feels evocative of Heath Ledger's character-defining performance without feeling like an altogether ripoff. It's certainly worlds apart from the, to be diplomatic, less than stellar turn taken by Jared Leto. Believe me when I write, the performance Keoghan delivered in this cut scene is not the part that leaves me disappointed. I'd love to see the character return after some time has passed. Genuinely.
Instead, the part that has my proverbial panties in a twist is that we've now seen The Joker put to screen nearly as many times as we've seen Batman put to screen, and frankly, while he is Batman's nemesis and arch-villain, he's also pretty boring. That's not to say that I won't be happy with anything the studio releases. I'm a hyper-nerd. I will see literally any half-baked idea that the suits at Warner decide to smear on a strip of celluloid. There's no chance that I won't. What I mean is that of all of the Superheroes in the pantheon of available characters in the DC stable, there is no hero more defined by his rogues gallery than Batman. Batman's rogues frequently highlight the character in ways that other comic heroes should aspire to achieve both in similarity and in stark contrast. So, Instead of spending a night grumbling about a performance I dug in a franchise so full of promise, I wanted to take an opportunity to throw out a few Batman rogues that I'd love to see play opposite of Pattinson's Caped Crusader, and I'll even cast them for good measure.
Something to consider while reading this list of suggestions is that the story of The Batman seems to take place very early in Batman's career, despite already having built up relationships with Gotham PD and having a bit of a reputation among Gotham's seedy underbelly. With that in mind, I can't rightly suggest Jason Todd or Red Hood show up, as there are certain building blocks necessary to get from A to B that we would be remiss to rush past in this franchise. So, I'm going to try to stick to rogues that could feasibly exist in this current canon, and which fit the movie aesthetically and thematically. Let's jam.
When I think of Batman, on of the first aspects of the character to cross my mind is always his resolute adherence to Justice. The character, despite having no powers of his own, has dedicated his life to training and has gained the respect of DC's most powerful characters on his own merits as a result. Despite that influence, and despite his own potential gain, Batman has never turned his considerable resources toward any goal but the protection of Gotham. This current film iteration seems to share that singular focus, albeit with a more brutal than average manner of achieving those ends. Now, let's remove personal responsibility from the equation. One of few rogues in Batman's gallery who have beaten him, not just once but on several occasions, and who has been written to have ties to even bigger threats, is Slade Wilson. Deathstroke, one of the world's greatest assassins, has all of the combat skill that Bruce Wayne has, but with an enhanced healing factor, enhanced strength, enhanced reflexes, and an enhanced mind from taking part in a failed super-soldier program. What sets him apart from Batman is that while he does occasionally seem to have a code of honor, largely Deathstroke is loyal only to himself and profit. Now, personally, I'm a pretty big fan of Manu Bennett's take on the character from the CW Flarrowverse, but I want to rule out any previous portrayers of the character from this search. Sadly, that also means we can rule out one of Nerddom's biggest superstars, Joe Manganiello. With that said, I don't plan on imposing any more restrictions than that, so I'm not taking budget or availability into account.
Deathstroke is often portrayed just a little older than Bruce Wayne in terms of appearance, but thanks to his super soldier healing factor, his actual age doesn't matter. Sadly, those kind of rejuvenating effects aren't commonplace in the real world, so I want to find someone just a smidge older than Robert Pattinson for this role. Pattinson is currently 35, but has a youthful aura. That gives us a rough target to aim for. Thanks to Manu Bennett, I have real difficulty imagining Deathstroke without a distinct accent, and I think in this case we can use that to our advantage. Compiling all of these factors into our calculations, I have one particular actor in mind for the role of Deathstroke, and suddenly while writing this I have found myself remarkably invested in the idea. It's Hugh Jackman. The man has aged remarkably gracefully, even for a celebrity, and has proven before that he's capable of insane levels of fitness and willingness to participate in the genre. Honestly, the only downside to this pick is that because Jackman seems so affable in real life, I couldn't find a recent photo of him mean-mugging.
With each rogue moving forward, I'd like to "push the boat out" a little further away from the realism that The Batman was moored at. I don't think that Slade is a huge departure from the tone of the established universe, so I think that one is a safe bet. That said, let's let ourselves move away from that just a little further with another rogue that Batman might not always be able to beat in a fair fistfight. One of the aspects of Batman put at the forefront of the character, even in the trailers for The Batman is the brutality, which often verges on savagery, that Pattinson's Batman employs while dispatching the criminals of Gotham. The next rogue I'd like to see in this franchise would dial-up the brutality, and maybe force Bruce Wayne deeper into introspection regarding the casualties he's likely leaving in his wake by so heavily relying on violence. The criminal element of Gotham tend to see Batman as less of a man and more of a monster, so who better to throw this aspect of the character into contrast than Killer Croc? Waylon Jones is often, especially as of late, depicted as a ravenous beast motivated by a desire to feast on human flesh. That's sad, in a way, as the character has one of the more tragic backstories in Gotham and has a great deal of trauma that could be explored to significant effect if he's put in the spotlight.
Imagine, if you will, corpses of brutalized thugs start showing up on the streets of Gotham. Naturally, part of the Gotham PD want to immediately pin these attacks on the vigilante known for brutalizing the local riff raff, and Gordon is sidelined by Internal Affairs because of his established connection to The Batman. Meanwhile, Batman is also investigating these killings, and slowly, over the course of the whole movie, he pieces together a story of neglect, abuse, trauma, ostracism, and ableism. He clashes with Killer Croc multiple times, nearly dying at the hands of the more vicious and stronger villain, throughout the movie, but ultimately realizes that the best way to stop Killer Croc, is to appeal to the humanity left in Waylon Jones. I think that there's a lot to work with here.
As far as casting Killer Croc, I know that there are a few elements I want to cover. He's typically depicted as a person of color, and often a young one. That's something I needed to keep in mind while finding an actor, but in addition to that, I want to make this a fully CGI character. I was so put off by the makeup in Suicide Squad that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's take on the character felt dead on arrival in my mind. When I think of young, black, male actors working today capable of bringing menace to their performance, as much as I want to break the mold here, I can really only imagine Michael B. Jordan here. He's Pattinson's contemporary, and he's also no stranger to Geek-Culture, which really cements this for me.
Before our last rogue, I'd like to take a moment to give a short list of a few runners-up that should absolutely be adapted (or readapted) to fit into this new franchise. In no particular order, I'd like to see Scarecrow, Clayface, Two-Face, the Court of Owls, and last but not least Solomon Grundy get their own adaptations. They're all incredible villains, and each of them represents an aspect of Batman's character that can be played for some truly juicy contrast. Scarecrow is a very literal manifestation of Batman's use of fear as a weapon. Clayface could be used as a character study on the dangers of trying to be too many people at once. Two-Face has been used to great effect as a foil for the fallen hero that Batman could very easily become. The Court of Owls represents the dangers that Bruce Wayne's connections to Gotham pose to Batman. Solomon Grundy is a big old zombie man who does a stronk punch. All of these are equal in merit and value to Batman as a character.
Now, lastly, Batman is a character known for his devotion to a cause. His desire to see Gotham thrive is one of, if not chief among, his principle motivators for putting on the cowl every night and prowling the rooftops. In my mind, the only character capable of throwing such powerful devotion into contrast is a character whose devotion vastly outweighs Bruce Wayne's. Victor Fries, also known as Mr. Freeze, is a dedicated husband whose absolute selfless devotion to his wife makes him one of Batman's most relatable and sympathetic rogues. At some points, Freeze's ends make it hard to even refer to him as a villain, though his means are often hard to reconcile. What sets Victor apart from Batman's vast catalogue of rogues is that Batman cannot punch this problem hard enough to make it go away. It's a tenacity that Fries shares only with the Joker; however, where the Joker is hellbent on playing a game with Batman, Victor's commitment to his mission leads him down a criminal path to restore his wife's health by any means necessary.
Strangely, ice puns aside, this is one of the more faithful villain adaptations we've seen yet in a Batman movie, and how it came from a Schumacher movie I'll never truly understand. Arnold Governator gave us an, while admittedly a quirky and silly adaptation, a sad and sympathetic villain with complex motivation. If he'd been in a better movie, I think there's a real chance that this would be Arnold's defining character, and not the T-800 from Terminator. Were these movies bad? Yes. Were they bonkers inaccurate on nearly every other rogue adaptation? Yes. Were they totally beyond redemption? Nearly No. The adaptation of Freeze is a glowing pinprick in the vast dark sky of these movies, and if we're being completely frank, as I've aged, the campiness has grown on me.
So, who plays Victor Fries in the RobPat Battenverse? Let's examine the elements of this character that I took into account in my search. First off, Fries is a very European name, and often his adaptations lean into that. Personally, America is a melting pot and I think that we could comfortably discard that commonly adapted element. Second, Fries needs to be older. It's important to remember that Fries is a highly distinguished scientist, and has years of study and years of marriage under his belt. One of the important aspects of this character is that his spouse, Nora, was put into cryostasis before her terminal disease could make good on the promise of terminality. As a result, I think that there is potential drama to be mined from making Nora's actor similar in age to Pattinson, but having Victor, who's lived outside the stasis, portrayed by an actor considerably older, implying possible incompatibility and/or wasted time and potential. I think the most important aspect of this character is the tragedy of his circumstances. So, that gave me a pretty broad net to cast for actors. Part of me wants to recommend George Clooney as a form of poetic irony, but I think that Clooney has aged so gracefully that he couldn't really exhibit the level of frailty and delicacy I want to put into Fries. With that said, I think there is a franchise-friendly older actor, who has proven chops portraying a sickly character robbed by circumstance. It's Saw's own Tobin Bell. Bell is going on 80 this year, which skews a little further into age than I had initially hoped for this character, but while looking for an actor to fit the part, every headshot I saw of him just bled with the dedicated vacancy I imagine in Victor Fries' eyes. It's a cold stare, but not one lacking in humanity.
I'm going to leave this here for now, but I'd love to come back to fan-casting this universe again in the future. I think there is an astounding amount of potential with this iteration of Batman, and I think the decision to leave The Joker on the cutting room floor bodes well for Matt Reeves' willingness to step outside the usual comfort zone inhabited by the past few Batman movie directors. Let's just hope that we stick with Bat movies, and don't end up with bad movies.
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