Kevin Smith Reveals Batman Villains That He Thinks Nicolas Cage Could Play Well

Which Batman villain would be best for Nicolas Cage to play? DC fans have been debating the topic ever since Nic Cage recently spoke up about a particular Batman villain he wouldn’t mind playing in Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe. Cage wanted to take on the role of Egghead, a villain that was played in the 1960s Adam West Batman TV series by the legendary Vincent Price. While we all respect Nic Cage’s choices about who Nic Cage plays, Filmmaker Kevin Smith respectfully had some alternative selections for who Nicolas Cage can play in The Batman sequels.

During a recent episode of his FatMan Beyond podcast, Kevin Smith and his co-host Marc Bernardin were discussing the story of Nic Cage’s comments about playing Egghead. Although Smith acquiesced that Cage is enough of an icon that Matt Reeves and Warner Bros. should just be signing him on the dotted line for whatever role he wants, he also suggested a few alternatives: 

“If he wasn’t Egghead – and now it’s gonna be hard to not see him as anything but Egghead – But what Batman villain would you cast Nic Cage as?” Smith asked Bernardin. After getting a humorous answer of “King Tut” Smith went on to offer some more grounded ideas: 

“Hugo Strange [Nic Cage] would do amazing with; Man-Bat; Scarface, b*tch, yes! Could you imagine he played Scarface so he was The Ventriloquist, but they made him up to also look like the dummy as well? Oh that’d be f*cked up. Like, remember that weird Pinocchio movie where he’s made of wood and you’re like ‘Uhhhhhhh!’ [makes scared face] like that f*cking look? That’s a good idea, Scarface. See, I wouldn’t have thought of that – you could pull that sh*t off in a Matt Reeves movie, right? Like there’s nothing weird about it: it’s just a guy workin a puppet and sh*t.” 

Anarchy was also thrown out as a suggestion by an audience member and Kevin Smith endorsed it. He ended the segment by saying “Well good for Nic Cage! He always gets what he wants, so I’m sure he’s going to get this, as well.”

Nicolas Cage has been an iconic standout in just about every comic book movie he’s done – whether it was starring as Johnny Blaze in the 2000s Ghost Rider movies or voicing Spider-Man Noir in the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: No Way Home. DC and Warner Bros. Pictures would indeed benefit from getting Cage into the Batman franchise, and there’s little doubt that director Matt Reeves would make good use of him. 

The Batman is in theaters (on HBO Max April 25th). Colin Farrell’s Penguin his getting a spinoff TV series, and Paul Dano will be writing a Riddler: Year One spinoff comic based on his version of the villain.