Matt Reeves rebuilt Gotham City in 2022 with The Batman, a noir detective thriller centered on Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) as he hunted a killer targeting the city’s elite. Despite the hurdles of the larger DC Extended Universe, the standalone story grossed $772.8 million worldwide, a number strong enough to justify expanding Reeves’ Gotham beyond a single movie. That expansion arrived through The Penguin, an HBO limited series that followed Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) as he fought his way up Gotham’s criminal underworld after the first movie’s events. The series collected 24 Emmy nominations, delivered a Golden Globe, a Critics’ Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award to Farrell, and earned an Emmy for Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). With that record in place, fans have shifted their focus to The Batman Part II, a sequel gaining traction thanks to a wave of newcomers led by Sebastian Stan.
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When Stan and Scarlett Johansson joined the cast, outlets indicated the pair would play Gotham’s district attorney Harvey Dent and his wife, Gilda Dent. Then Brian Tyree Henry joined the cast, and The InSneider’s Jeff Sneider reported that multiple sources had reversed the original pairing entirely. According to Sneider, Henry is the one now playing Dent, while Stan has shifted to Victor Zsasz, a serial killer from the comics who carves a tally mark into his own skin for every victim he claims. While Hollywood insiders like Sneider are more often wrong than right, photos shared on social media in July 2026 showed Stan with a fully shaved head, a look that matches Zsasz’s traditional comic book appearance. While nothing is official yet, and all the rumors could be wrong, it would be better for Reeves’ universe to let Stan play Zsasz.
Zsasz Is the Perfect Foe for Robert Pattinson’s Batman
Victor Zsasz first appeared in Shadow of the Bat #1 in 1992, a Batman comic created by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle. Outside of comics, Tim Booth played him as an enforcer for Carmine Falcone in Batman Begins, Anthony Carrigan played him across multiple seasons of Gotham, and Chris Messina played him as a hired killer in Birds of Prey. None of those appearances gave the character enough room to stand out. Reeves’ Gotham, however, has a particular interest in Batman’s World’s Greatest Detective title, as the first movie turned the Riddler (Paul Dano) into a serial killer that Bruce must investigate. A new killer for The Batman Part II could build upon that procedural framework instead of introducing an unrelated concept, giving Pattinson’s detective work a natural throughline between the two films.
That said, Reeves has described the sequel’s central antagonist as a character never previously adapted for film, a description that points away from Zsasz. Nevertheless, Zsasz could operate as a secondary threat rather than the film’s primary villain. For instance, the Court of Owls is also rumored to be part of the movie, and given the wealth and power of the organization, they could unleash Zsasz as a decoy running parallel to a larger conspiracy. That’s a perfect choice, as using an established but underexploited villain as a distraction while a deeper antagonist works from the shadows fits the layered mystery structure Reeves already proved successful with Falcone (John Turturro) and the Riddler. Finally, giving Stan a different role from Harvey Dent is way more interesting.
It’s Better If Sebastian Stan Doesn’t Play Harvey Dent
Stan has built a career on morally complex roles, particularly through his long run as Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, acting both as villain and hero. That range makes him perfectly equipped to play Harvey Dent, a man who begins his career as Gotham’s defender before a disfiguring accident brings out the darkness he always carried inside. While the path of Harvey Dent runs in the opposite direction to the Winter Soldier, Stan would still be a safe choice for the role. That can work, of course, and I’m confident Stan would shine as Harvey Dent. However, maybe it’s better to let him get out of his comfort zone and stretch different acting muscles.
Zsasz has never carried a major storyline in any format, live-action or animated, which gives Stan a sort of clean slate to make the role his own. On top of that, Reeves’ Gotham draws heavily from the tone of films like Se7en, and a twisted serial killer gives Stan someone new to add to his impressive filmography. Sure, Stan did play a cannibal killer in Fresh, but Zsasz is a different kind of monster, less refined and more feral. The Batman, and then The Penguin, became hits because these projects were not afraid to challenge expectations, so letting Stan play Zsasz would be better for the franchise than typecasting him as Harvey Dent.
The Batman Part II is currently filming and is scheduled to open in theaters on October 1, 2027.
Would you rather see Sebastian Stan carve out new territory as Victor Zsasz, or watch him take on the more familiar path of Harvey Dent? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
