6 The Batman Part II Theories We Want To Be True

I understand that the creative process takes time, and I respect that Warners are giving Reeves the space to develop his story in his own time. As the toy repairman said in Toy Story 2, “You can’t rush art.” But this is getting pretty ridiculous. After Star Wars hit, George Lucas had The Empire Strikes Back in theaters within three years. Reeves and his co-writer Mattson Tomlin spent about as long just working on the screenplay for The Batman sequel.

The Batman: Part II was initially set to be released on October 3, 2025, but it got pushed back to October 2, 2026, during the strikes, and then it got pushed back again to October 1, 2027, because the script still wasn’t ready. Now, it’s scheduled to release on February 18, 2028, to allow more time for post-production, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

In the meantime, we’ve had more than four years to speculate on what The Batman: Part II will look like — who the villains will be, what the story will be, which other characters will be introduced from the Bat-Family, etc. — and it looks like we’ve got at least another two years to continue speculating. There are dozens of fan theories about The Batman: Part II, ranging from plausible to outright outlandish, and out of all those theories, some of them actually sound really tantalizing.

The Court Of Owls Will Be The Batman Part II's Secret Villain

Although The Batman: Part II is already well into production, Warner Bros. is still keeping the sequel’s main villain a secret. We’ve heard rumors about Two-Face, rumors about Mr. Freeze, and rumors about a live-action Phantasm. But the most exciting suggestion for Part II’s villain is the Court of Owls. The Court are a secret underground society of the ultra-wealthy, secretly pulling the strings and using a death squad of assassins known as “Talons” to maintain the institutional problems and economic divide in Gotham City.

The Batman already touched on these themes, suggesting that a cabal of the obscenely rich are the ones keeping Gotham mired in crime and corruption, so we’ve been hearing Court of Owls theories since the sequel was greenlit.

The Batman Parts II & III Are Secretly Filming Back-To-Back

This one might just be wishful thinking, but there’s a theory that the reason Reeves spent so long writing The Batman: Part II is that he also wrote The Batman: Part III at the same time, and that Parts II and III are currently filming back-to-back.

There’s no evidence of this, other than the fact that three years is long enough to write two scripts, but this theory is probably just copium. Still, it would make sense from a business perspective. We know that Reeves has envisioned The Batman as a trilogy, and that James Gunn is waiting for Reeves to finish that trilogy before introducing the DCU’s own Batman, so why not finish it all in one go?

Sebastian Stan Is Playing Victor Zsasz

Since Charles Dance was cast as Charles Dent and Scarlett Johansson was cast as Gilda Dent, when Sebastian Stan joined the cast of The Batman: Part II, it seemed to track that he would be playing Harvey Dent. But The Batman sequel is supposed to have a villain who’s never been properly adapted in a movie before, and Two-Face has been done to death in previous Batman movies. Batman Forever had a Two-Face, The Dark Knight had a Two-Face, even Joker: Folie à Deux had a Two-Face. We don’t need another Two-Face.

If the villain of The Batman: Part II really is Two-Face, then I’m sure Stan will do a fine job. He’s a good physical match for Harvey, and he certainly has the range to pull off the Jekyll-and-Hyde of it all. But it would be much more exciting if Stan was playing a Batman villain we’ve never seen on the big screen before.

When Stan was asked about his Batman villain, he cryptically mentioned that he was playing multiple roles in one, due to his character’s multiple personalities. It’s easy to assume he’s talking about Harvey’s dual persona, but he could be talking about psychotic serial killer Victor Zsasz. Zsasz is one of Batman’s greatest (and most terrifying) enemies, and we’ve never seen him in a live-action movie, and Stan would be a fascinating choice to play that character.

Reeves already did the serial killer thing with his Zodiac-inspired Riddler and the Se7en-inspired murder mystery in The Batman, so he might not want to do another serial killer in the second movie. But it could establish Battinson as a Mindhunter version of Batman, specifically profiling and targeting serial killers.

Robert Pattinson's Batman Is Joining The DCU

I understand why Reeves wants to keep his gritty, grounded The Batman universe separate from James Gunn’s colorful, comic-booky DCU. But it just seems so stupid and backwards for Gunn’s DCU to introduce its own Batman, when there’s a perfectly good Batman sitting right there.

Even if two concurrent Batman franchises aren’t confusing for general audiences, it’ll oversaturate the market. Pattinson’s Batman is as definitive a take on that character as David Corenswet’s Superman, and it just feels right for them to share the same universe.

Scarlett Johansson's Gilda Dent Is A Gender-Flipped Hush

Johansson’s casting as Gilda Dent was pretty surprising, because Harvey’s wife isn’t usually a very important character, but Johansson is a very important actor. You don’t get one of the biggest and highest-paid movie stars in the world to play an incidental role, so Gilda must be pretty important in The Batman: Part II.

The best theory I’ve seen for Gilda’s role in The Batman: Part II is that she’s a gender-flipped version of Hush. In the comics, Hush is a sociopathic criminal who Bruce Wayne grew up with, and it would be interesting to see Johansson play a femme-fatale version of that character.

Robert Pattinson's Batman Will Get A Version Of Robin In Part II

When we met Pattinson’s Batman, he was young and inexperienced. He was still figuring out how to effectively fight crime in Gotham without sustaining too many injuries or getting himself killed. We saw him stall the Batmobile, crash his flight suit, and take an explosion literally on the chin. It was a spot-on adaptation of the “Year One” version of Batman.

In The Batman: Part II, the character needs to evolve. After saving Gotham from the Riddler’s wrath, he’s got a bit more experience under his belt, and some fans have theorized it will lead to him taking Robin under his wing. Outside of a Lego movie, we haven’t seen Batman share the big screen with Robin since Chris O’Donnell’s noble but ultimately disappointing tenure. Zack Snyder killed Robin off-screen, just to make sure he couldn’t be introduced at some point in the future.

Robin is a great character, and adopting him is a huge step in Batman’s journey, but he’s been made a laughingstock. The Batman: Part II could turn that around with a genuinely emotional and engaging Batman and Robin story.