The Batman Part II has become a sort of white whale in the superhero space. Fans have been eager to see Matt Reeves’ sequel ever since The Batman first debuted in 2022, and have spent the ensuing years imagining countless villains and storylines that could make their way into the movie.
Even amid those years of speculation, I guarantee you that nobody could see the latest piece of actual news coming. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed chatter (originally from Nexus Point News) that Scarlett Johansson is in “final negotiations” to join The Batman Part II. While that does not mean that she is officially signed on to the part, she would reportedly shoot the project after working on Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Exorcist reboot.
This news has immediately sent shockwaves through the nerd world: both because it is our first concrete piece of new casting news surrounding The Batman Part II, and because it concerns Johansson. Outside of just simply being a household name, she is extremely well-known for her decade-plus tenure as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, this news is already breaking people’s brains a little bit… even though, honestly, the age-old feeling that actors can’t jump between DC and Marvel has definitely gone out the window in recent years.
Outside of the MCU, Johansson’s work has earned her a Tony Award, two Oscar nominations, and five Golden Globe nominations. The laundry list of projects she has been a part of includes Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit, and most recently this year’s Jurassic World: Rebirth. So if she does join The Batman Part II, with a singular director like Reeves at the helm, it doesn’t seem completely out of left field. Still, the idea of her potentially joining the movie raises one major question…
Wait, who could she be playing?
Part of the beauty of The Batman Part II has been that we really have no idea what to expect in it. Even after the events of its TV spinoff series, last year’s The Penguin, we still have really no idea what the stakes are going to look like for Robert Pattinson’s emo Bruce Wayne / Batman. While we remain in that grey area, there are a handful of characters who immediately come to mind for Johansson’s possible role.
There’s Vicki Vale, the Gotham City journalist (and occasional love interest of Bruce Wayne) who was most famously played by Kim Basinger in 1989’s Batman. In the same vein, there’s famous socialite and Bruce love interest Silver St. Cloud. The only time we’ve seen her in live action was as a teenager during the second season of Gotham, but just based on the reaction to her brief appearance in Season 2 of My Adventures With Superman, she is destined to become a fan-favorite character.
There’s also Andrea Beaumont, who is best known for her surprising role in the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. She is initially introduced as Bruce’s fiancee… only for him (and the audience) to learn that she is really the villainous Phantasm. After being notorious among DC’s animated corner for years, she made her mainstream comic debut in Tom King and Clay Mann’s Batman/Catwoman limited series in 2020.
Again, this is all still very early… and there’s a chance that the mystery role in question could be filled by an actress other than ScarJo. But either way, The Batman Part II just got even more interesting than I thought was humanly possible.
(featured image: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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