From the chilling, tragic sci-fi horror of Mr. Freeze to the labyrinthine political schemes of the Court of Owls, fans have spent years theorizing which iconic adversary director Matt Reeves might pluck from the DC archives for his follow-up to The Batman. Recently, chatter surrounding The Batman Part II has intensified. While these reports remain strictly speculative, they provide a fascinating window into the potential trajectory of Reeves’s gritty Gotham City.
According to unconfirmed reports from industry insider Jeff Sneider, Sebastian Stan is being eyed for the role of the depraved serial killer Victor Zsasz, while Brian Tyree Henry is reportedly in the running to portray the ambitious public servant-turned-tragic figure, Harvey Dent. Neither Warner Bros. nor DC Studios have corroborated these casting choices; however, if accurate, the selections suggest that Reeves intends to double down on the visceral, noir-infused atmosphere that defined his first outing.
Why Victor Zsasz is a natural fit for The Batman II
Victor Zsasz occupies a unique, albeit grisly, niche in the Batman rogues’ gallery. While he has appeared across various media—from the Arkham Asylum games to the animated Harley Quinn series—he rarely takes center stage. His modus operandi is disturbingly minimalist: a serial killer who tallies his victims with jagged scars upon his own flesh. Lacking the theatrical grandeur of the Joker or the tragic stature of Mr. Freeze, Zsasz represents a raw, street-level brutality that perfectly aligns with the grounded realism Reeves established in his previous film.
The original The Batman functioned less like a traditional comic book romp and more like a psychological detective thriller. By channeling the dread of films like Se7en or Zodiac, Reeves reimagined the Riddler as a systematic murderer, positioning Batman as a detective struggling to keep his head above water in a decaying city. Within that framework, a predator like Zsasz feels less like an outlier and more like an inevitable escalation.
Image: Dustin Nguyen/DC
Rumors also hint that Colin Farrell’s Penguin could appear in flashback sequences detailing Zsasz’s origins. This aligns with character lore such as The First Cut is the Deepest, where Zsasz’s descent into madness is triggered by a disastrous gambling loss at the Iceberg Lounge. Such a narrative choice would reinforce the central theme of the current franchise: that Gotham’s villains are not merely cosmic accidents, but the inevitable products of the city’s systemic rot—a philosophy that makes the potential inclusion of Harvey Dent all the more compelling.
What can we expect from Harvey Dent?
Initially, Dent is a beacon of hope—a prosecutor fighting to drag Gotham into the light. If Brian Tyree Henry is indeed cast, it suggests that Reeves may be meticulously laying the groundwork for a long-burn character arc, rather than rushing to the standard coin-flipping villainy. It is worth noting that Billy Dee Williams famously portrayed the character in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, though plans to transform him into Two-Face were sidelined, leaving an interesting legacy for a new iteration to explore.
For now, these casting rumors remain mere conjecture. Until official word arrives from the studio, it is entirely possible that these characters will not appear at all. Nevertheless, the speculation confirms one thing: The Batman Part II is poised to be one of the most intense and somber chapters in the Caped Crusader’s history when it hits theaters on October 1, 2027.
Source: Polygon
