“The Batman Part II” is currently filming, with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh serving as on-set director while Matt Reeves is said to be dealing with a family crisis. The film’s story remains shrouded in mystery – it hasn’t even been confirmed which characters new cast members Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Brian Tyree Henry and Charles Dance are playing. But naturally, rumors swirled, and new leaks were able to confirm some of them.
For a long time, the assumption was that Sebastian Stan would play Harvey Dent/Two-Face, with Johansson playing his wife Gilda Dent and Dance playing his abusive father Christopher Dent. But in June of this year, scooper Jeff Sneider reported that Henry was playing Dent and Stan would instead play Victor Zsasz. (A rich kid turned serial killer, with a penchant for burning his victim tally into his flesh, Zsasz is the kind of villain who would fit perfectly into the dark world Reeves established in “The Batman.”)
Sneider’s report seems likely thanks to a leak from Heidi Klum’s makeup department. Let me explain. The model is well known for her elaborate Halloween costumes. This year, she left like a severed hand. Mike Marino, the makeup artist who designs Klum’s costumes, was also the makeup artist on “The Batman” and returns for “Part II.” In some detective work worthy of Batman himself, fans spotted what appear to be props from “The Batman Part II” in a video showcasing the making of Klum’s 2026 costume.
Props include what looks a lot like a cast of Brian Tyree Henry’s face with a disfigured lip, aka Two-Face. There’s also a box titled “Zsasz” and, more intriguingly, a box titled “Owl 3”, which likely suggests the Court of Owls, an evil secret society in Gotham City.
The Court of Owls in the Batman Comics, Explained
If this leak is true, fans who were gearing up for Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent should hold on to disappointment. But at the same time, Zsasz is the kind of role that will allow him to stretch his legs. Brian Tyree Henry as Two-Face also shows promise as the man knows how to play a good guy turned bad guy – check out his incredible voiceover performance as Megatron in the previous animated film “Transformers One.”
But what about the owls? Created in 2011 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, the Owls have been manipulating Gotham from the shadows for hundreds of years. They are distinguished by their owl-themed masks and employ similarly-themed near-immortal assassins called Talons. (The creative, out-of-universe reason for the owl theme is that owls eat bats.) They are generally considered a myth in Gotham, to the point that they are even the subject of their own nursery rhyme:
“Beware the Court of Owls, watching all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowy perch behind the granite and limestone. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, say nothing of them, or they will send the Heel for your head..“
The original screenplay for “The Court of Owls” is widely considered a modern classic. Many Bat fans, not to mention Robert Pattinson, have long touted the Court as the ideal villains for a sequel to “The Batman.” This film was about Bruce Wayne investigating institutional corruption in Gotham City. This makes the Court of Owls a thematically consistent villain for “Part II” – what if Batman continued to peel back these layers and discovered that the rot runs even deeper and centuries old?
“The Batman Part II” is currently scheduled for a theatrical release on February 18, 2028.
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