The Batman: Jonah Hill in Talks for Villain Role

After a period of relative quiet regarding developments with Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Monday is proving to be a busy news day for the upcoming Warner Bros. film. First, it was reported that Jeffrey Wright is in talks to play Commissioner Jim Gordon and now Deadline is reporting that Jonah Hill is also in talks to appear in the film.

Per the report, no deal has been signed yet, but the two-time Oscar nominated Hill is in talks to play a villain in the film. The report did not indicate a specific villain at the time of this article’s writing, though previous canonical Batman villains to grace the big screen have included The Joker, The Riddler, Scarecrow, Penguin, Bane, Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Ra’s al Ghul. There have been previous reports that Hill was rumored to be inconsideration for the role of Penguin for The Batman.

In addition to making his directorial debut with A24’s Mid90s in 2018, Hill most recently starred in The Beach Bum and has been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar twice, once for Moneyball and once for Wolf of Wall Street. News of Hill being in talks comes right after news that Westworld star Jeffrey Wright is in negotiations to play Commissioner Jim Gordon. Robert Pattinson has previously been announced to be playing the titular hero, Batman.

While the report regarding Hill doesn’t indicate a specific villain, reported plot details that surfaced earlier this month have noted that The Batman will have multiple villains as part of a larger detective story.

“The Batman will explore a detective case — when people start dying in strange ways, Batman must go deep into the dark world of Gotham to find clues and solve the mystery/conspiracy connected to Gotham City’s history and criminals” the details claim. “In the film, all of Batman’s Rogues Gallery are already out there and active, similar to the comics and animated shows/movies. The film will have multiple villains, as they are all suspects.”

It’s an idea that is very fitting with Reeves has previously described as a noir-driven, point of view Batman story definitive of the character.

“I went on a deep dive again revisiting all of my favorite comics. Those all inform by osmosis,” Reeves said last summer. “There’s no continuation of the Nolan films. It’s very much trying to find a way to do this as something that for me is going to be definitively Batman and new and cool.”

The Batman is currently set for a June 25, 2021 release.