The first full trailer for Matt Reeves’ hotly anticipated The Batman finally debuted last Saturday during the movie’s DC FanDome panel.
Though the trailer only hints at the underlying story of the film, the action-packed teaser video makes it clear that the Robert Pattinson-led film is the grittiest and most brutal cinematic outing yet for the fan-favorite DC vigilante. Set against a gloomy Gotham City, the trailer shows Pattinson’s Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, attacking criminals with visceral, unhinged brutality that previous live-action Batman adaptations never quite reached.
The trailer opens with the arrest of the Riddler (Paul Dano), a serial killer who leaves cryptic clues with his victims and holds a special fixation on Batman. Though the Riddler is the main antagonist of the movie, the baddie’s face is hidden throughout the trailer, suggesting some kind of shocking reveal in the film.
Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman and Colin Farrell’s Penguin also take center stage in the trailer. True to her comic book version, the film’s Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, has a penchant for hiding in plain sight with the help of various wigs and outfits. Like in the source material, Selina is also curious about the man behind Batman’s signature cowl. “Maybe we aren’t so different,” Selina tells Batman at some point in the trailer. “Who are you under there?”
Prior to Kravitz, Michelle Pfeiffer memorably played Catwoman on screen in 1992’s Batman Returns. The character was also portrayed by Anne Hathaway in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. “I don’t want her to be an idea, you know, I want her to be a real human being in a real situation in a real city trying to survive and reacting to her own pain,” Kravitz said about her version of Catwoman during the movie’s DC FanDome panel.
Farrell, meanwhile, is utterly unrecognizable as the Penguin, aka Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, in the trailer. Though the actor previously mentioned that he’s only in “five or six” scenes in the film, his character appears several times in the trailer, including the explosive chase scene at the end. The penguin was notably played by Danny DeVito in 1992’s Batman Returns.
Also featured in the trailer is Andy Serkis’ Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce’s loyal butler. “If this continues, it won’t be long until you’ve nothing left,” Alfred vaguely tells Bruce in the trailer, to which the latter replies: “I don’t care what happens to me.”
As previously revealed, The Batman is not an origin story. It, however, centers on a younger version of the titular character who is at the beginning of his crime-fighting career.
“It’s about the early days of him being Batman and he’s very far from being perfect,” Reeves said of The Batman during last year’s DC FanDome event. “One of the things that are interesting is learning how to be Batman. It’s a criminological experiment. He’s trying to figure out what he can do to change this place. He’s seeing he’s not having any of the effects he wants to have. That’s when the murders start to happen … and it opens up a whole new world of corruption.”
After being delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Batman is now set to open in U.S. theaters on March 4th, 2022.