The Batman Director On Grounding Mr. Freeze, Fantastical DC Villains in Sequels

The Batman will be delivering a grounded take of the Caped Crusader when the Matt Reeves film hits theaters early next month, a fresh take on the DC Comics character set in a brand new cinematic canon. With Gotham being brought to life in gritty fashion for this potential new franchise, Reeves and Robert Pattinson have plenty of ideas for the character and his universe. However, DC Comics fans know that not all of Batman's villains can be so easily grounded in reality as The Riddler, the villain of this first installment. When it comes to the likes of Clayface or Mr. Freeze, Reeves and company have their ideas.

"In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything," Reeves said at a Los Angeles Q&A with The Batman's cast and filmmakers, when Fandom's Eric Goldman asked about fantastical villains coming to this new cinematic world. "To me, it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try to figure out how that could happen. Even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that's such a great story, right? I think there's actually a grounded version of that story that could be really powerful and could be really great. I love that fantastical side of Batman but this iteration, obviously, to me while being very comics faithful but I don't think this one necessarily.. it doesn't lean into the fantastical, I guess, but I think to me what would be interesting would be to try to unwind that fantastical and see, 'Well, how could that make sense here?' and so that's kinda my view, how I see it."

Mr. Freeze has most famously been played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Joel Schumacher's 1997 Batman & Robin film with the legacy not exactly being known as grounded characters. Pattinson chimed in with a quip. "Just get a guy and put some clay on his face," he joked, addressing the original question which named Clayface as an example of a fantastical villain.

Villains are not the only characters the filmmakers have the opinions on should The Batman spawn sequels. Pattinson was asked by Neil Bui of Dorkaholics if he is ready to take on a Robin sidekick going forward. "Yeah but he has to be 13. That's the only way I'll accept it," Pattinson joked. "No, I love Death in the Family and stuff. I think it would be so cool. Also, people are so scared of it, that it's kind of exciting. I think it would be a really fun addition." In fact, the emotional elements of Batman's psyche which were laid out in a response to a question from Insider's Kirsten Acuna might inform how Pattinson's Batman and Bruce Wayne could have a hard time allowing a Robin to get close to him.

"Totally, I agree with that," Reeves added to Pattinson's sentiments. "The thing about doing a Batman movie, it's scary to do a Batman movie. First of all, there have been great ones. Also, every single one of you has a vision of Batman in your head....I also like Death in the Family and I think the idea of being able to approach some of the stories and think, 'How can we do this in a way that feels fresh and grounded?' Look at the scary thing and see if there's a way to do it. The question is, would we be too scared? I think we should try."

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