The Batman: Robert Pattinson Reveals the Villains He Wants to Fight in a Sequel

In March, Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves are bringing a whole new vision of Gotham City and the Batman mythos to the big screen, with Robert Pattinson starring as a more hyper-violent version of the vigilante.

In fact, we’ve already watched Pattinson dole out beating after savage beating in the trailers leading up to the movie’s release, but when we spoke to him for our The Batman cover story in the new issue of Den of Geek magazine, the actor was excited, even jovial, about where his Dark Knight might go next. Inevitably, the subject of a potential sequel comes up. While WB has yet to officially announce “The Batman 2,” Pattinson already knows which villains he wants to fight in the next movie.

“I’d love to do something like Court of Owls,” says Pattinson, referring to the 2011 DC Comics horror story about a hidden society that’s secretly ruled Gotham from an underground lair for centuries.

The storyline by the dynamic duo of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo kicked off a new era of Batman tales that took the character to darker corners of Gotham City than he’d ever been before. The Court of Owls, a cult-like faction of criminals who wear owl masks and employ undead assassins to do their bidding, would certainly fit into the more Gothic feel of Reeves’ new Batman universe, according to Pattinson: “There are elements of The Batman which are kind of horror and I think it really feels quite new for Batman.”

The other villain on Pattinson’s wishlist? Calendar Man, the creepy, date-obsessed baddie who commits crimes based on holidays. He also plays the role of a Hannibal Lecter-like genius taunting the Dark Knight as he tries to find the serial killer terrorizing Gotham in The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, one of the major influences for The Batman.

But before Pattinson can truly turn his attention to owls or calendars, he first needs to deal with Paul Dano’s Riddler.

The sadistic, puzzle-solving masked killer inspired by the Zodiac Killer is not only on a quest to eliminate Gotham’s most elite citizens but to uncover the corruption at the heart of the city, one body at a time. Along the way, he digs up dark truths about the Wayne family that will shock Bruce to his core.

It’s the classic setup we’ve seen in many great comic book stories, a fight for the soul of the city and Batman’s own, but this is still all new to the World’s Greatest Detective played by Robert Pattinson. Only two years into his crime-fighting career, this Caped Crusader thinks he knows Gotham and understands his mission, but when the Riddler comes to town it makes Bruce lose his footing.

“[Bruce] thinks it’s his city in a weird sort of way. He thinks he’s kind of built it,” Pattinson says. But while Bruce has “the money and the castle,” he’ll learn the hard way that he has “absolutely no control or power over anything in the city.”

Riddler is far from the Dark Knight’s only problem in the upcoming movie. Pattinson’s Batman will also have to take on a who’s who of classic villains, including master cat burglar Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), infamous mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and freakish gangster Oswald Cobblepot (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell). It’s certainly the biggest challenge this Batman has ever faced.

In just a few weeks, we’ll find out whether the Dark Knight can defeat the odds once again or if he’ll suffer an inevitable fall — flood waters cover the streets of Gotham in the trailers, suggesting Batman can’t completely stop whatever is coming. Reeves has revealed that his take on the mythos is heavily inspired by noir films. In the tradition of the classic genre’s grim storytelling, there’s a chance the hero might not come out the winner.

The Batman hits theaters on March 4. You can read more exclusive details about the film here.