The promotional train The Batman is kicking into high gear with the premiere less than a month away, and director Matt Reeves is already floating villains that Robert Pattinson‘s Dark Knight could potentially face in a sequel film. During a press event on Tuesday, Reeves revealed that he’d love to take a crack at Mr. Freeze, who was last seen on the big screen in 1997’s Batman and Robin, a film that brought the entire franchise crashing down and left George Clooney holding a bag full of Bat-nipples that still haunt him to this day.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered a full-on camp performance for the classic villain, Reeves would want to take things in a much different direction to match the grittier, darker tone of his upcoming take on Batman. Via Collider:
So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right? I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great. So, I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don’t think that this one is necessarily, it doesn’t lean as hard into the fantastical, I guess. But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here?
As for who Reeves should cast as Mr. Freeze, the choice is obvious: Arnold again. The man has range, and if Spider-Man: Far From Home taught us anything, it’s that people love old stuff showing up in their new stuff. Can’t enough of it.
The Batman opens in theaters on March 4.
(Via Collider)