A new rumor going around spreads the unsurprising claim that Riddler and Penguin will return for The Batman’s sequel as it’s also hinted Colin Farrell and Paul Dano have signed on to appear. More names could be added to that list, including Barry Keoghan as the Matt Reeves-verse’s Joker, whom we only saw in one scene at the end making friends with Riddler.
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Beyond Keoghan, it’s possible other names could be joining Joker, Penguin, and Dano’s mass-murderer version of the Prince of Puzzles. According to the rumor’s main source, Twitter user and scooper DanielRPK, The Batman 2 could do what Ben Affleck didn’t get to and delve deeper into Arkham than ever. Therefore, we might see more of the inmates.
Matt McGloin of Cosmic Book News speculates, based on additional intel he’s gathered about the tentative story Reeves envisioned, that there might be a prison break in the cards. “The Arkham half,” as McGloin puts it, could involve an escape from the asylum led by Riddler and Joker which may also be used to introduce some more rogues.
As for The Penguin, who is not locked up, we should get to see the payoff to his rise to power, and by the second film he ought to be the Kingpin of Gotham. Farrell already explained in interviews the HBO Max series will explore “Oz’s rise to power, filling that power vacuum created when Falcone was killed.”
He added the series is supposed to begin right after The Batman ended. “And then if it works, if the trajectory is entertaining enough and the audience goes for it, and we do our jobs right,” Farrell said, “have Penguin feature in the second film and pick up where the HBO show will end. So I don’t know how much he’ll be in it.”
It’s possible Penguin will be in the background and not the main villain. Riddler and Joker aren’t considered likely to fill that spot either and the main foe – as far as the consensus goes – has yet to be announced. Everyone has a theory but the bottom line is we know who is going to be there in terms of the bad guys and the good guys.
Robert Pattinson will be in The Batman – Part 2, obviously, but he has a chance of appearing again earlier than that. Another rumor postulates that Pattinson will appear in The Penguin’s miniseries and a source is corroborating this. Jeff Sneider revealed on The Hot Mic podcast he’s heard Pattinson shall show up as Bruce, The Dark Knight, or both.
If he turns up as Bruce, Sneider adds, the podcaster can picture Pattinson dressed to the nines and kicking back in Penguin’s club. That could be, but to tell the truth, The Batman didn’t leave us with the impression that was Bruce’s style under Reeves. He either fought his way in under the cowl or went to commiserate at Falcone’s feet.