The Batman Part II rumours hint he’s flying into even darker and weirder territory

Introducing a new sadistic psychopath and a secret society of Gotham grandees would mean Harvey Dent takes a backseat to Victor Zsasz and the Court of Owls

Matt Reeves’ The Batman was a strange beast from the beginning. Perhaps not comic-book weird in the usual sense – no cosmic portals or rubber nipples here – but strange all the same. This was a Gotham where Bruce Wayne seemed to have been styled by the ghost of Kurt Cobain, the Riddler appeared to have escaped from a David Fincher evidence locker, and the whole city looked as if it had been left to soak overnight in rainwater and civic corruption. The expectation was that Reeves would begin rolling back the bizarre in part two, perhaps leaving us with a more orthodox Batverse populated with mobsters and corrupt lawyers. Sebastian Stan seemed central to this, with rumours suggesting he would portray Harvey Dent/Two-Face, perhaps alongside Scarlett Johansson as his wife, Gilda.

In the last week, however, there have been suggestions that the sequel might just be priming itself for something a fair bit freakier. Hollywood industry veteran Jeff Sneider is reporting that the main antagonist this time around could be the Court of Owls, a sinister secret society of Gotham grandees who look at first glance like a murder-bird upgrade on the League of Shadows, but are really something nastier: the city’s masked, devious ruling class, living out of secret rooms and exploiting a property portfolio that probably goes back to the Pilgrims.

First introduced in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s 2011 Batman run, the Court have the obvious advantage of never having been seen in a live action Batman movie before, largely because they hadn’t even appeared in the comics when Christopher Nolan began his Dark Knight trilogy. They would bring a different kind of threat to Reeves’s Gotham, one that feels like a suitably grand and twisted upgrade on the Zodiac-adjacent Riddler, rather than a return to more familiar Bat-territory.

The timing of these new reports is notable. The Batman Part II appears finally to be moving into production, yet Warner Bros hasn’t yet formally confirmed which roles Stan and Johansson are playing, only their casting. Moreover, quite how Dent would fit in with the Court of Owls is open to question, which is perhaps why Sneider is reporting that one-time Marvel star Stan may in fact be portraying a different character: serial killer Victor Zsasz.

Here is another figure who may not be well known to casual Batfans (he’s only been around since 1992), but who could fit perfectly into Reeves’s spikier, more curdled vision of Gotham City: a sadistic psychopath who is exactly the kind of guy the Court of Owls might hire if Batman started infringing on their murderous real-estate interests.

In this version of events, Harvey Dent will be portrayed by Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry, with the suggestion being that he may not even end up transforming into Two-Face after all. That feels like the more innovative move for Reeves, given that the Nolan films already told the story of the coin-flipping lawyer’s descent into darkness. And while some might say that the Court of Owls are pulling from the same well as the League of Shadows – seen in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises – there are subtle distinctions that make the former feel like a more natural fit for Reeves’s fouler, sicklier Gotham.

Nolan’s League (led by Liam Neeson’s superb Ra’s Al Ghul) were outsiders, a ninja cult convinced that urban renewal could be achieved via mass murder. The Court are something nastier and more domestic; rather than invaders coming to punish Gotham for its errant ways, they are the city’s sins made flesh. How might Barry Keoghan’s Joker fit into all this? There are rumours that the cackling, green-haired psychopath will be in Reeves’s sequel after all, even if he spends most of it languishing in Arkham Asylum, being used by Batman as a DC take on Hannibal Lecter.

Perhaps that might be for the best: after all, Warner Bros needs to make sure it leaves something suitably toxic in the tank for part three, and nothing would round off this new Batman trilogy better than the clown prince of Gotham as final boss.