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The Batman Part II is finally making moves towards its 2027 release date, but recent casting news could see the film draw similar inspiration to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Matt Reeves released The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson as the titular hero, way back in 2022.
Due to the significant shake up at Warner Bros, and the formation of a new DC Studios leadership board with James Gunn and Peter Safran sitting at its head, the future of a branching universe of Batman stories briefly became tenuous, but due to The Batman’s considerable popularity and success, it was quickly confirmed by Gunn that DC Elseworlds would be the home of comic book stories from DC that weren’t parallel to his DCU.
Regardless, the shake-up did end up shifting the plans for The Batman’s sequel, and finally, after a five-year intermission, Reeves’ Batverse will return to the big screen. However, despite being a bold new take on a familiar story, recent news makes it seem like this story could be more similar to The Dark Knight than anyone could have predicted.
The Batman 2 Is Shaping Up To Be Another Long Halloween Adaptation
The Hollywood Reporter announced that Sebastian Stan, best known to comic book movie fans for his role as The Winter Soldier in the MCU, is joining the cast of The Batman Part II as Harvey Dent, aka Two-Face. Prior to this, Scarlett Johansson, the MCU’s original Black Widow, was also announced to be joining the cast in an undisclosed role.
Rumors circulated that Johansson would be playing Gilda Dent, the wife of Harvey, and now the casting confirmation of Stan as Dent all but confirms the likelihood that these two characters are likely to appear in The Batman Part II. Which could very well lead to this movie being a more faithful adaptation of The Long Halloween, a story which The Dark Knight was partially inspired by.
How The Batman Part II Can Be A Better Long Halloween Than The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight blended two well-known Batman stories: The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween. Creatively speaking, this was a masterstroke from director Christopher Nolan, as he pitted two of the most notorious Batman villains against each other, and made Dent’s villain origin tie in to The Joker, but it was also distanced from the source material.
The Long Halloween is a story that sees major players, Harvey Dent, Jim Gordon, and the Batman team up to root out corruption and mob crime in Gotham City. But simultaneously, a terrifying killer is working in the shadows and killing people on major holidays. As it unfolds, Harvey’s mental health deteriorates, and the truth about his wife, Gilda, serves as a central element of the larger story.
If The Batman Part II has indeed cast Johansson as Gilda Dent, and it intends to deliver a more faithful adaptation of The Long Halloween, this would be an incredible story that works perfectly with the dark noir tones of Reeves’ Batverse, and continues illustrating how dark and destructive this version of Gotham truly is.
While it doesn’t need to be a perfect beat-for-beat adaptation of the comics, this story is one of the most memorable and widely beloved series in the history of the character, and it is certain to get fans talking and engaging with the twisted and dark themes and narratives playing throughout.
Why Batman Movies Keep Going Back To The Long Halloween
All comic book movies face a unique problem in the fact that they often have too much source material to draw from. Some of these characters go back several decades, and Batman serves as one of the most widely popular and familiar for fans across a massive cross-section of TV, comics, and previous movies.
But one of the most appealing elements of Batman stories often comes from its exploration of the mind, consciousness, good versus evil, and what it takes to corrupt someone. Batman serves as this unyielding force for good. Stubborn, brutal, and often violent, but ultimately, he has morals and laws by which he abides that differentiate him from his rivals.
On the flip side, there are characters like Harvey Dent, who is shown to be on the opposite side of that coin. He is nicknamed the White Knight of Gotham, creating an overt comparison to their dark protector, and with his work as the District Attorney, he makes changes and locks up the bad guys in the light.
However, as much as Dent is someone who has a lot of overlap with Batman, he is shown to be more corruptible, and his fall from light to dark is one of the most fascinating stories in the history of comic book villains. For that reason, a story like The Long Halloween, exploring that gradual shift, is easily one of the best ever written.
As a result, it makes perfect sense that this narrative is something that is frequently revisited and used as a defining moment, not just for Gotham and Harvey Dent but also for the hero who stands strong even when everything else falls around him. Making it the perfect story to explore the characters in Reeves’ The Batman Part II, especially the Dark Knight himself.
