Jonah Hill Might Be the Perfect Villain For Robert Pattinson's Batman
Somewhere out there, on an eight-foot-long piece of parchment paper, someone must be keeping track of all of the A-listers and prestige up-and-comers who haven’t been cast in a superhero movie yet. (Who’s even left on that list? Timothee Chalamet? Phoebe Waller-Bridge? Stop me.)
It’s a an ever-dwindling group of people I always think has just about run out, until we get the latest batch of casting news—like yesterday’s reports from Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman, which already has its lead in Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne. Collider broke the news that Jonah Hill is in talks to play the Riddler (although The Hollywood Reporter claims that this hasn't been decided, and the Penguin is also in the conversation). Separately, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Westworld star Jeffrey Wright is in negotiations to play Commissioner Jim Gordon.
Both Hill and Wright are no-brainers to jump in on Reeves’s take on Batman, which seems closer to Christopher Nolan’s sensibility than Zack Snyder’s. "It's very much a point of view-driven, noir Batman tale," Reeves told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. "It's told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it's going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional. It’s more Batman in his detective mode that we’ve seen in the films."
If the Collider report proves true, then Hill’s skillset matches up with what it would take to pull off a convincing Riddler—starting his career taking on comedic roles (Superbad, 21 Jump Street), before proving himself as a dramatic actor (Moneyball, The Wolf of Wall Street). And Wright’s Commissioner Gordon—while yes, it’s a shame that we might not see more of JK Simmons’s spin on the detective—seems like a safe bet, as he’s been known to throw on a pair of glasses and mumble through some life-or-death directives in other roles.
In the coming weeks, we should see if Pattinson, Hill, and Wright are the main crew Reeves will roll with, or if he’s going the path of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and casting half of Arkham Asylum’s incarcerated villains.
The Batman will hit theaters on June 25, 2021.
You Might Also Like
