Despite appearing in 12 live-action movies and countless other animations, Batman’s movie Rogues’ Gallery has been mostly dominated by familiar faces. We’ve had 5 movie Jokers, 2 Riddlers, 4 Catwomen, 3 Penguins, 2 very different Banes, and we’re now about to get a fourth Harvey Dent. There have, of course, been other villains, like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr Freeze, Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, and Christopher Walken’s Max Schreck, but it would be nice to avoid quite so much repetition in the next 2 Batman movies, especially with speculation that Dent will be in The Batman: Part II. Luckily, it seems we might be getting exactly that in 2027’s sequel.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Though they’ve only been around for just over a decade in DC Comics, the Court of Owls – who were introduced in Scott Snyder’s Batman run as part of the New 52 relaunch – have become a hugely popular part of the Dark Knight’s lore. They are, in fact, one of the most fondly remembered parts of the otherwise divisive New 52, and DC fans have long wanted to see them introduced to a live-action movie. Now, thanks to new rumors about Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part II, we may finally be seeing that dream realized on the big screen for the first time. And frankly, it’s about damn time.
The Batman Part II Can Finally Give us Some of the Best DC Villains Ever
According to Jeff Sneider, much of the speculation about The Batman: Part II‘s villains has been off-base. While Harvey Dent will appear, he won’t be played by Sebastian Stan, as widely believed, but will instead be played by Brian Tyree Henry. Stan, meanwhile will play Victor Zsaz, and Scarlett Johansson and Charles Dance will play important characters who aren’t direct adaptations from the comics. Previously, we’d all been led to believe they would be playing Gilda and Christopher Dent, but the new report says they’re more likely amalgam characters from multiple comics originals. And on top of all of those figures, and possible return for Barry Keoghan’s Joker, the Court of Owls will also appear from out of Gotham’s shadows.
There have been rumors of the Court of Owls appearing in Matt Reeves’ sequel already, and they absolutely fit the world that Robert Pattinson’s Batman protects (more of which soon), and they’re more compelling as a villainous entity than any single villain. No matter how powerful. This wouldn’t, of course, be the first time the Court had appeared in live-action: they were a key part of The CW’s ill-fated Gotham Knights back in 2023. Sadly, DC fans have mostly wiped that show out of collective memory – if they watched it in the first place – though the depiction of the overarching villains was actually pretty good. And crucially, in The Batman: Part II, they can be even better.
How The Batman Already Set up The Court of Owls
The Batman‘s most compelling selling point was the idea that The Riddler believed himself to be Gotham’s savior, uncovering upper-class and systemic corruption. And it wasn’t just leading to Nigma’s capture: Matt Reeves has previously revealed that the upcoming sequel was all set up in the original: “The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie, and it expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see.” The first movie, of course, established that Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas, was embroiled in corruption himself, when he unwittingly sent Alberto Falcone (John Turturro) to kill a journalist who was writing an exposén on his wife Martha’s history of familial mental health issues. That very much sets up the idea of a system ruled by the rich and powerful, whose influence could sidestep the usual limits of law.
Reeves also explicitly told Deadline that The Batman: Part II is “going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption, and it goes into places that he couldn’t anticipate in the first one.” Deeper corruption absolutely sounds like a nod to the Court of Owls, who secretly operated beneath the surface in Gotham for hundreds of years. In short, the ground work has all already been established, and more importantly, the Court would be an excellent addition to The Batman‘s sequel.
Why The Court of Owls is Perfect for The Batman Part II
Even with a lot of villains already in play in The Batman: Part II, there’s room for that deeper corruption that Reeves teased because of how it ties up Bruce Wayne’s story. As The Penguin further underlined, this version of Gotham exists very much on a sliding scale of morality where almost all criminality is a product of the status quo. Oz Cobb is a creation of his circumstances, and gains power precisely because he knows how to manipulate Gotham to his will. He is an almost benevolent protector of the population forgotten or ignored by the wealthy Gothamites. The Penguin did very well to paint a better picture of Gotham’s class divide, and the idea that the wealthy areas were mostly unaffected by The Riddler’s terrorist attack and the subsequent strain on infrastructure opens the door to the Court’s unseen influence.
Like Cobb, Bruce is a product of his circumstances, and there is a delightful contradiction in the idea of a billionaire who chooses benevolence and vigilanteism over the dark mirror offered by the Court of rich and powerful families leaning more towards corruption and consolidation of power. Exploring that, and the impact on Bruce’s own identity issues, would be the perfect backdrop in The Batman: Part II (and even into the third part) as well as adding more depth to the Penguin’s own conquest of the city’s underworld. I’m far more excited about that new dynamic in this world than I am in seeing another pantomime villain, and the value it would add to the Riddler’s story retrospectively would be an additional bonus.
The Court of Owls also comes with their own army of henchmen, the cult-like Talons who do their bidding. That means both powerful and untouchable villains at the top of the hierarchy, and physically threatening lower-level villains to occupy Pattinson’s Batman and give us actual action sequences. And the mystery element, of course, offers Bruce a chance to really earn Batman’s label of the World’s Greatest Detective.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
