Almost all of The Batman’s main villains have shown up on the big screen before. However, few of the Dark Knight’s enemies are as deserving of cinematic redemption as Mr. Freeze. The character has long been considered one of Batman’s most endearingly complex foes. And if director Matt Reeves can figure out how to introduce Freeze in a more realistic setting, we might get to see him square off against Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne in the future.
Reeves briefly discussed which villains could appear in a sequel to The Batman during a recent press event (via Collider). Like Christopher Nolan before him, Reeves seems to have a preference for keeping his own Batman universe grounded in reality. Regardless, he sounds open to exploring the more fanciful side of the rogues gallery, meaning that villains like Mr. Freeze still have a chance.
“In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything,” said Reeves. “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? And so that’s kind of my view, how I see it.”
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Although Mr. Freeze’s early comic appearances were very campy, Paul Dini and Bruce Timm famously revitalized the character in 1992, when Batman: The Animated Series aired its landmark “Heart of Ice” episode that still holds up as one of the show’s best. The episode marked the first appearance of Freeze’s terminally-ill wife, Nora, who was cryogenically frozen until her husband could find a cure for her disease. Unfortunately, when 1997’s Batman & Robin tried adapting this storyline, it arrived with an over-the-top performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger, complete with a never-ending barrage of ice puns.
The Batman will hit theaters on March 4.
Who would you cast to play Mr. Freeze in Reeves’ Batman universe? Let us know in the comment section below!
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