Who's the Villain in Matt Reeves' Batman II?

I'm willing to say that a superhero movie is only as good as its villain. And in Batman movies, the villain is sometimes the main draw.

That's why people are so excited for Matt Reeves to take on the second installment of his Batman saga. They want to know who he'll bring to the screen and how that person will be laid into the canon of Batman villains.

Well, Reeves recently stopped by the Happy Sad Confused Emmy Red Carpet coverage with Josh Horowitz and talked about what he was planning for the film.

Let's dive in.

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The red carpet is a fun place to get a scoop like this one, and you can see how excited Reeves is to dig into the story.

Basically, he's doing something very different with this movie and focusing on Bruce Wayne.

Reeves said:

I knew with the way [The Batman] ended, it was leaving us on the precipice. Also, the way events happen in [The Penguin. 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.

The first story is so much about The Batman. I always wanted in the movies, and let’s say we get to make three – I have no idea – that I always wanted the movies to be focused on his character. A lot of the other films, which I love, once you get past the origin tale, then you start telling the rogues’ gallery story and that character’s arc.

I never wanted to lose Rob at the centre of these stories, so that is what we really set our aim on. Picking the right villain that digs into what that does and goes into his past and his life, that was what drove that discussion. We’re super excited about it, and I will say, it’s never really been done in a movie before.”

Ideas like this have led comic fans to speculate who could be brought into the fold to be the villain that focuses on these areas. Would it be someone like Hush, or could it be Ra's al Ghul, or maybe another person who can refocus the story on Wayne?

Reeves continued:

“We haven’t talked about anything like that. We have had conversations about how things could work and all that kind of stuff, just in general. So, of course, it would be a lot of fun. What I really want to do is play out these stories that we began and arrive at the conclusion I’ve hoped we would arrive at from the beginning. It’s very exciting… I mean, it’s a DC, so, like, it’s Elseworld, but it is DC, so it’s theirs as well. What the future brings and what I am doing will become clear when it comes.”

These are really interesting comments and give us a lot of speculation about who in the Rogues Gallery would come forward and how we'd find a villain that sits within the world Reeves has put together.

I love that he's going to dig deep into Wayne as a character and pull out villains that dig into him and go into his past and life.

Reeves did say the villain he's picked is someone who has never been done before on screen, so I would speculate it's someone more modern from the comic creation, but again, we really have no idea.

Production on the new film is slated to begin in April 2026 and then be released on October 1st, 2027.

We'll be waiting to see who plays the bad guy in this movie and to understand how they fit into Bruce Wayne's very complicated life.