The Batman 2’s Best Villain Theory Is Close to Being Confirmed, but Should Be Saved for Part 3

The Batman: Part II is now filming, but there’s still so much we don’t know about it. Sure, we know plenty of behind-the-scenes details, like Matt Reeves is returning as director and co-writing the script with Mattson Tomlin (Project Power). Robert Pattinson is back as Batman, Andy Serkis will play Alfred again, with Colin Farrell returning as Penguin, and Jeffrey Wright back as Jim Gordon. We even know about the impressive ensemble that’s joining the sequel, including Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (Thunderbolts*), and Brian Tyree Henry (Eternals).

That all said, we know little to nothing about what the actual story of The Batman: Part II is going to be, or which villain(s) will be involved. However, there is mounting evidence that the sequel will follow a predictable arc for one of its major characters. If that’s true, Matt Reeves needs to take a lesson from the previous Batman movie directors and give this arc the proper two-film stretch it needs to properly develop.

Sebastian Stan’s Role in The Batman: Part II Confirmed?

The MCU’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier actor, Sebastian Stan, has joined The Batman: Part II as Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent. This live-action movie version of Harvey Dent won’t be like any of his predecessors: he’ll be introduced along with his wife, Gilda (Johansson), and his father, Christopher (Game of Thrones‘ Charles Dance). The early impression is that The Batman universe’s Harvey Dent won’t just be Gotham’s “White Knight,” but also part of a prominent Gotham family.

The casting of Stan immediately convinced a lot of DC fans that he was going to play Two-Face. Sebastian Stan has been giving the rumors of his Two-Face role much more validity lately, stating during an interview that when it comes to playing the villain,  “I’m nervous and trying to keep surprising myself.”

His MCU role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier was its own version of a Jekyll/Hyde dynamic, while Stan’s other recent roles included playing a charming ladies’ man who’s secretly a demented killer (Fresh), and a disfigured actor who gets surgery that makes him a handsome, likable guy. It seems to be his niche exploring men who have a different internal psyche than the face they wear in public, and that’s exactly what a deep and compelling examination of Two-Face should be.

Two-Face Needs At Least 2 Batman Movies

But that’s the thing: it doesn’t seem like any single Batman movie has ever really managed to get the Harvey Dent/Two-Face character completely right – and most have tried. Tim Burton only introduced Harvey Dent as the hot-shot D.A. cleaning up Gotham’s mobsters (like Jack Napier/The Joker); Joel Schumacher went with a zany, flamboyant, and totally deranged version of Two-Face (played, ironically enough, by Tommy Lee Jones). Even Christopher Nolan couldn’t pull it together (in the opinion of most fans) with The Dark Knight‘s nearly three-hour story of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) trying to take down Gotham’s mob, and ultimately breaking down (after half his face is burned off) and going on a murder spree.

The common denominator here is that each of these Batman movies has tried to use Harvey Dent/Two-Face without giving the character enough time and space to develop. Matt Reeves needs to learn from one of the best examples of how to do Two-Face right: Batman: The Animated Series and its classic “Two-Face” story arc, told over two episodes. The cartoon series wisely split the tale into a first half that deals with Harvey Dent and his public mission to stop mobsters like Rupert Thorne, while secretly battling his private demons and psychological issues. Things come to a head when Thorne tries to blackmail Dent with his psyche profile, leading to a heated confrontation and explosion that leaves Harvey scarred by chemicals. The second episode saw “Two-Face” launch his wave of crime against Gotham City in revenge against Thorne. Despite Bruce wanting to redeem his friend, “Harvey,” as Batman, he eventually has to accept that “Two-Face” has always been Harvey’s true face, and stop his former friend.

The Batman: Part II is rumored to be weaving together a Harvey Dent/Two-Face story with the Court of Owls, a clandestine cabal of powerful and wealthy Gotham Families who act as a local Illuminati, controlling Gotham’s construction, politics, and power structures for centuries. That’s already a lot of lore to cover and explore in a film, and it will already raise red flags with fans who remember how The Dark Knight tried to tack a Two-Face story onto a Joker vs. The Mob story, and disappointed a lot of Two-Face fans as a result.

It would be much more effective to use the sequel to really explore who this Harvey Dent is, his family dynamic, his connections to Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon, and the criminal underworld (which is now run by Colin Farrell’s Penguin). The sequel should end with Dent suffering the calamity that transforms him into Two-Face, but his actual arc as a “supervillain” should be saved for The Batman: Part III. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s ‘Batman: Year Two’ story arcs (The Long Halloween, Dark Victory) are also rumored to be influences on Reeves’ sequel: we’re hoping it’s the part of those stories where Harvey becomes Two-Face, then stages a massive uprising of Gotham’s costumed “freaks” to go against the cops and the remaining mobsters.

It would be the perfect climax for the threequel to see Two-Face unleash a wave of “freak” killers like Joker (Barry Keoghan), Riddler (Paul Dano), and Penguin (Colin Farrell); it would push The Batman universe into that sort of same territory as the Adam West film from the ’60s, with the Dark Knight’s main Rogues Gallery teaming up to take him down.

If nothing else, a well-built Harvey Dent performance transitioning into a well-earned and well-paced Two-Face story would be a feat. How would you like to see it play out? Let us know on the ComicBook Form! The Batman: Part II will be in theaters on October 1, 2027.

Every Actor Confirmed for The Batman: Part II (& Who They’re Playing)