'The Batman' Villains Revealed: A Half-Dozen Bad Guys Rumored To Join Matt Reeves' Reboot

Who will Robert Pattinson's Batman be brawling with in The Batman? A new report specifically singles out both the Penguin and Catwoman, and adds that the Matt Reeves flick could have up to "half-a-dozen" villains in the movie. Would one Bat-film be able to sustain so many baddies? And why re-team the Batman Returns duo of Penguin and Catwoman again? Learn more about The Batman villains below.

Things appear to be picking up steam on The Batman. Last night, word broke that Robert Pattinson was the frontrunner to take over the role of the Caped Crusader (although Nicholas Hoult might be in the running too, depending on who you ask). Now, the Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision newsletter has even more info, specifically regarding the villains. Per their report:

Matt Reeves is still tweaking his script, which is rumored to have at least two villains, the Penguin being one of them, according to sources (one person is telling us there will be around half-a-dozen villains!). We're hearing of another purrfect character making an appearance in the script as well.

While she's not specifically mentioned, the "purrfect character" is obviously Catwoman. Singling out Penguin and Catwoman is particularly interesting, since this same villainous duo were the major antagonists in Tim Burton's Batman Returns. Then you have to figure in the half-a-dozen villain part – just how does that fit in?

Reeves has previously hinted at a much different Batman film than we've seen in the past. "There's a chance to do an almost noir-driven detective version of Batman that is point-of-view driven in a very, very powerful way, that will hopefully connect you to what's going on inside of his head and inside of his heart," he said in one interview. In another, he added:

"For me, point of view is really important. I want to make sure you are experiencing something from the perspective of the main character in the story. I'm a huge Hitchcock fan — I like the idea of being immersed in that perspective. Movies for me are about empathy. The idea is to make you, the audience, feel what the character feels."

It's hard to reconcile the thought of half-a-dozen villains with what Reeves is saying above. The source material that immediately comes to mind is the comic book arc Hush, in which nearly every member of Batman's rogue's gallery has a cameo. But that doesn't seem like the type of story Reeves would adapt, based both on his words, and his career in general. My best guess is that if there really are multiple villains in The Batman, they will play a very small part. Perhaps Batman will visit Arkham Asylum at one point, where several of his famous foes are locked up.

That's just speculation at the moment. The only two villains that are semi-confirmed, at least according to THR, are Penguin and Catwoman. So feel free to start your fan casting now.

Update: Back in 2018, Reeves shared this photo on Twitter, so maybe he was hinting at some of the roster of rogues we can expect in the film?

The Batman opens June 25, 2021.