New Plot Details Revealed For The Batman

From what we've seen thus far, it's safe to say that Matt Reeves' "The Batman” will be remarkably different from the character's previous feature film adaptations. "The Batman” follows the titular caped crusader, played by Robert Pattinson, nearly one year into his career as Gotham's Dark Knight, as he tries to track down a sadistic serial killer known as The Riddler (Paul Dano). One look at Pattinson's take on Bruce Wayne should tell you just how unique this adaptation will be. He's a world-weary, emotionally scarred man whose obsession with crime-fighting leaves him as a shell of his former self — and the grim, brutal version of Gotham City the film presents reflects just how damaged his character truly is.

Director Matt Reeves has also asserted that the film will be more of a noir detective story than a true superhero film and that he wants to bring the character back to his roots as the "world's greatest detective" (via The Hollywood Reporter). As such, it's natural that much of the film's plot has remained closely guarded leading up to its March 4 release date, as the mystery aspect of the story is going to be incredibly important. Still, Reeves and a few members of the cast provided fans with some very interesting new plot details in their recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.

The EW interview revealed that Catwoman's role in the film is going to be much more prominent than previously anticipated and that the dynamic between Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) and Bruce Wayne is going to change the way both characters view the world around them. The two first meet after Batman's hunt for the Riddler leads him to the Iceberg Lounge: a nightclub run by Penguin himself, Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell). Selina works there as a waitress and occasionally sells drugs to some of the Lounge's more seedy patrons. She becomes wrapped up in Batman's investigation after her roommate disappears, and the two team up to unravel the mystery surrounding The Riddler and his ruthless murder spree.

Kravitz asserted that the chemistry between the two characters will be apparent from the moment they first meet. "They have quite a strong connection pretty quickly, and I think they're both trying to ignore that," she explained. According to Pattinson, this connection challenges Batman's binary world view, wherein he splits the entirety of Gotham City into the innocent and the guilty. "There's something in her I recognize," Pattinson says. "It's going up against his snap judgment."

It seems like this dynamic between the brooding, antisocial detective and the infamous cat burglar will end up being a major plot point throughout the story, and we can't wait to see the chemistry between the two characters on the big screen.

During the interview, director Matt Reeves emphasized that challenging Batman's moral code is a major theme throughout the film — one that he explores through both the dynamic between Bruce and Selina, as well as their investigation into The Riddler's murders. During his investigation, Bruce begins to unearth a massive conspiracy concerning the secret history of Gotham City's corruption, a conspiracy that his own family may have been involved in. The revelation challenges everything that Bruce thought he knew, and could potentially be a major turning point for his character moving forward. 

This twist was hinted at in the recently released "The Bat and The Cat" trailer, wherein The Riddler tells Batman he wants to "unmask the truth about this cesspool we call a city," before revealing that he knows Batman is actually Bruce Wayne.

The idea that The Riddler investigation could reveal something about the history of the Wayne family is certainly shocking. Such a twist would be unlike anything we've ever seen in a live-action Batman film and could throw Bruce's entire worldview into question.

Reeves explained that his version of Batman is "still becoming," and that he wanted to explore how that character became the man we meet in other Batman stories. "I didn't want, Here comes the rogues gallery characters, and here's Batman, and aren't they exciting,” Reeves said. "I wanted it to be much more psychological for his character to have a place to go."

Similarly, the film finds Selina Kyle in the process of becoming Catwoman, and Oswald Cobblepot in the process of becoming the crime boss known as the Penguin. "These characters are so mythic," Reeves explained. "And I wanted [them] to be very flesh and blood ... I wanted this to be filled with all those little teases where the freshness of it was meeting the characters in ways that you hadn't seen yet."

The film is set to be perhaps the most compelling Batman film to date: one which plays out more like a psychological thriller than a superhero film, and paints a grisly picture of what Batman's early days as a crimefighter might have looked like.