Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Part II

  • Ever Watchful— ‘The Batman-Part II’ Working Title Points to the Court of Owls!

    Ever Watchful— ‘The Batman-Part II’ Working Title Points to the Court of Owls!

    Matt Reeves is back in the director’s chair, and the production secrets for the most anticipated sequel in DC history are finally starting to leak. The working title for The Batman – Part II has been revealed and it may well point to the sequel being exactly what we all thought it might be.

    While a working title is often a decoy, in the world of Reeves’ Epic Crime Saga, it’s usually a roadmap. And if you know your Gotham lore, “Semper Vigilans” points directly to the one villain fans have been begging to see: The Court of Owls.

    In the comics, the Court of Owls is a centuries-old secret society of Gotham’s wealthiest families who pull the strings of the city from the shadows. Fans have heavily theorized their inclusion in the franchise since 2022.With the city still recovering from the Riddler’s flood, the power vacuum is the perfect time for an ancient elite to re-emerge.

  • Further Details Emerge on Scarlett Johansson’s ‘The Batman 2’ Villainous Role

    Further Details Emerge on Scarlett Johansson’s ‘The Batman 2’ Villainous Role

    Matt Reeves made a major splash in landing Scarlett Johansson in a lead role in his upcoming sequel to 2022’s The Batman. Synonymous with Marvel Studios early success, Johansson remains a bonafide movie star in an era where those are harder and harder to find.

    Following the initial report by Nexus Point News, fans immediately began theorizing about Johansson’s role, with Poison Ivy an early favorite. However, industry vet Jeff “The In” Sneider shot that idea down while adding enough additional context to lift another Batman baddie into contention.

    Sneider shared word that Johansson will indeed be the film’s villain with the caveat that she may also be the new love interest of Robert Pattinson‘s Bruce Wayne. And for many fans, that was enough to go on to believe that the actress will be playing Andrea Beaumont, also known as The Phantasm.

    Picking the right villain that digs into what that does and goes into his past and his life, that was what drove that discussion.

    -Matt Reeves

    Given what’s known about the role, Beaumont–who first appeared the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm–is as good of a fit as can be imagined. Reeves has previously revealed that the new film’s villain has never been featured in live-action Batman films before and Beaumont as a love interest-turned antagonist does indeed fit that description.

    Fans had previously believed that Reeves was teasing Hush, a character created by Jeph Loeb in 2022, who was seemingly set up in the first film. Given Hush’s connections to Wayne’s past, he did seem to fit if the film is going to explore the billionaire more than the Bat. However, Johansson’s casting has changed that a bit and a further excavation of The Phantasm’s creation only strengthens the likelihood that’s who she’ll be playing.

    While it’s certainly not out of the question that Johansson could be playing a gender-swapped Hush that serves of an amalgam of multiple characters, including Beaumont, knowing Reeves‘ desire to keep his Batman Epic Crime Saga rooted in noir-style storytelling makes The Phantasm a fantastic fit.

    Though The Phantasm is an original character created Alan Burnett and Paul Dini for the animated feature, the character was derived from a pair of characters who first appeared in Mike Barr’s four-issue Batman: Year Two comic. Given that The Batman was a “Year One” tale, it’s certainly an interesting coincidence that the sequel’s villain could be connected to a “Year Two” tale.

    Though Batman: Year Two isn’t on anyone’s best Batman stories list, it introduced Rachel Caspian as a love interest for Batman. It also introduced her father, Judson, who was eventually revealed to be a villain named the Reaper. Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm loosely weaved those characters into Andrea Beaumont, the film’s femme fatale.

    There is an exploration to be had, and one of the explorations for me was to do something that pushes even further into the character of Bruce Wayne.

    -Matt Reeves

    With The Batman-Part II clearly cut out to be another piece of hardboiled detective noir work from Reeves and the villain intended to help the story connect to and explore Wayne’s past, Beaumont checks all the boxes. Her history and path to becoming a vigilante closely mirrors Wayne’s, allowing for a new angle on how the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne set their son on the path to becoming Batman, making the sequel the “Bruce Wayne” movie that Reeves wants to create.