“The Batman” Is a Hit – but Who's His Next Nemesis?

In the comics, the Penguin is a crime kingpin, but in “The Batman,” we see that he’s not yet at the top of the food chain. He’s a lieutenant that works under Falcone and operates a nightclub called the Iceberg Lounge. In a Dec. 20 interview with Empire, Reeves described the Penguin in the film as a “mid-level mobster guy” that has “a bit of showmanship,” but he wants more power. It’s likely we’ll see the Penguin become the villain we all know him to be in the comics when his spinoff series comes to HBO Max. If so, he could become a real threat to Batman in a future film.

One of Batman’s most well-known villains from the comics is Mr. Freeze, aka Dr. Victor Fries, who is a cryogenicist that is determined to find a cure for his terminally ill wife, Nora, at all costs. He keeps her cryogenically frozen in his lab, but one day, an accident causes Victor’s body temperature to drastically decrease. He realises his body can now only survive at sub-zero levels, forcing him to wear a suit to keep his body cold. He starts to rob banks in order to fund his research, which puts him up against Batman and Robin.

During a press event for “The Batman,” Reeves teased the idea of having Mr. Freeze appear in a future film. “I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great,” he said, according to Collider.

Pattinson has said in several interviews he hopes Batman will take on the Court of Owls, which is a criminal organization made up of Gotham’s elite. The Court of Owls appeared in the second and third season of the “Gotham” TV series, as well as the 2015 animated film “Batman vs. Robin,” but they’ve yet to make it onto the big screen.

During a Feb. 14 interview with Den of Geek, Pattinson told the publication he’d “love” to do “something like Court of Owls” in a live-action Batman movie. He teased the idea again during a March 2 Q&A with Vanity Fair. “I was definitely thinking Court of Owls is probably gonna be in the sequel,” Pattinson said. “I mean, I am literally just guessing, I just keep saying it.”

We’ve already seen several live-action adaptations of the Joker fight Batman, but it’s possible the villain could go up against the Dark Knight again, especially since he makes a cameo at the end of “The Batman.” During the final scene of the film, we see that the Riddler befriends someone while locked up at Arkham State Hospital. The two talk through a wall, and at one point, we hear the mysterious prisoner’s chilling laugh. His name is never mentioned, but Reeves confirmed during a March 3 interview with IGN it was an early version of the Joker, played by Barry Keoghan.

“In the comics, these characters often declare their alter egos in response to the fact that there’s a Batman out there. And so here, we have a Joker who’s not yet the Joker,” Reeves said. “He’s eventually going to declare himself as a clown, declare himself as the Joker.”

Reeves admitted he’s not sure if the Joker will show up in a future sequel to “The Batman,” but his scene is meant to show viewers that “trouble, as always, is brewing in Gotham.”

Although Hush has made live-action appearances in TV series like “Gotham” and “Batwoman,” we have yet to see him in a live-action film. In the comics, Hush, whose real name is Thomas Elliot, is Bruce’s childhood friend. He grows up in an abusive household, so one day, he enacts a plan to get his parents killed in a car accident in order to inherit their fortune. His father dies, but his mother is saved by Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, leading Thomas Elliot to develop a grudge against the Wayne family. As an adult, he becomes the villain Hush and teams up with the Riddler to take down Batman, who Thomas Elliot realises was Bruce all along.

Interestingly enough, in “The Batman,” we find out a reporter named Edward Elliot gets killed by Falcone. Thomas Wayne asks Falcone to silence the reporter after they get dirt on his wife, Martha Wayne, but Bruce’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, reveals Thomas Wayne only wanted Falcone to intimidate Edward, not kill him. Thomas Wayne wants to come clean to the police about what happened, but before he can do so, he and Martha are killed. It’s possible we might see Thomas Elliot in a sequel to “The Batman” where he tries to avenge Edward, who is reportedly his great-great-grandfather in the comics, by killing Bruce. A tie-in website for “The Batman” also teased Hush as a potential villain.

In a March 4 interview with Twitter Movies, Reeves said he would love to see Hush in a sequel, although right now, it’s just an idea. “I’ll choose Hush, but that doesn’t mean the next [villain] will be Hush,” Reeves said. “That is a character that I love that I would love to see done, and maybe we’ll get the opportunity to do it, but there are many [villains to choose from].”