The second trailer for The Batman has arrived - here's our full breakdown of the new footage, from plot details and story reveals to hidden details shedding more light on Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne. The Batman has changed immensely since 2014, when Warner Bros. green-lit the Caped Crusader's first live-action solo movie since The Dark Knight Rises. Initially intended as a DCEU entry with Ben Affleck on both sides of the camera, The Batman was to feature Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke and pay off the Justice League post-credits sequence. Due to studio restructuring and an overhaul of DCEU direction, however, The Batman is now a standalone movie directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson in the title role.
The trailer opens with the arrest of the Riddler, but although we know the role is played by Paul Dano, director Matt Reeves keeps the character’s face hidden throughout the trailer, suggesting some kind of shocking reveal. Like the teaser that debuted during last year’s DC Fandome, this trailer only hints at the underlying story of “The Batman,” but Dano’s Riddler is clearly the main antagonist driving it, as a serial killer who leaves cryptic clues with his victims and holds a special fixation on Batman.
Instead, the trailer provides a more extensive first look at two other central characters. First among them is Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, who, true to comic-book form, has a penchant for hiding in plain sight in a series of wigs and is curious about the man behind Batman’s trademark cowl. The character has been memorably played on screen by Michelle Pfeiffer in 1992’s “Batman Returns” and Anne Hathaway in 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” But “The Batman” is the first iteration in the larger Batman franchise to lead with Catwoman’s introduction, matching the character’s place in the comic books as one of the most important figures in his life.
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The first enemies spotted in The Batman trailer 2 are the same villains glimpsed in previous footage - Gotham gangsters wearing clown-like white face paint. There's no obvious counterpart in DC comics that might identity this group but, of course, wherever there's clowns in Gotham City, Joker usually isn't far behind. Chances of the Clown Prince himself appearing in The Batman are slim, but these goons may confirm his presence in the background, paving the way for Joker's debut in a sequel. Other rumors suggest The Batman may be somehow connected to Joker (despite the timeline difference), and criminals wearing clown face paint would support that theory.
“I don’t want her to be an idea, you know, I want her to be a real human being in a real situation in a real city trying to survive and reacting to her own pain,” Kravitz said about the character in the Fandome panel with Pattinson and Reeves.
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Meanwhile, the last time the Penguin appeared in a Batman movie, he was played in “Batman Returns” by Danny DeVito as a disfigured man who nonetheless still looked recognizably like the actor. To which the filmmakers of “The Batman” said, hold my beer: because Colin Farrell is utterly unrecognizable here as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, aka the Penguin. Farrell has said he’s in only “five or six” scenes in the film, but he’s all over this trailer, showcasing a transformation that all but obliterates his appearance.
Otherwise, we get our first look at Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler, who, like many Alfreds before him, sings a familiar tune when it comes to his charge.
“If this continues, it won’t be long until you’ve nothing left,” Alfred tells Bruce — whose reply underlines the streak of nihilism that seems to run through this film: “I don’t care what happens to me.”
Watch The Trailer:
SCREEN SHOTS
