Matt Reeves Won’t Say Who He Wants to Play With Next in His Batman Universe

Now that we are living in a world where Colin Farrell in Max’s newly released The Penguin show is putting on the performance of his career, all eyes are on The Batman director Matt Reeves to give a say which member of the famous rogues’ gallery fans should expect to see next. Although Reeves is still holding his cards close to the chest (that isn’t a hint), he has shared some insight into what he envisions for the future of his sliver of Batman projects moving forward.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reeves said the Batman Epic Crime Saga will show fans how dark facets of the American Dream have tarnished Gotham City. As EW notes, Reeve’s flavor of storytelling is already in motion in The Penguin, with Oz Cobb‘s rise to power akin to Tony Montana’s in Scarface. Only, take Tony Montana’s story and give it the finger-pinching gesticulation of HBO’s own Tony Soprano.

“If you do watch the whole thing, it is an epic narrative and a meditation on the corruption and why Gotham is the way it is,” Reeves told EW. “When I talk about the other shows that we’re talking about doing, what’s exciting is to think about going down another alley that we weren’t able to go down with The Penguin and The Batman.”

Like most Warner Bros. Discovery projects, the chances that we’ll see Reeve’s BECS come to life depend on viewer reception to The Penguin and whether the company wants to scrap it alongside the other DC-centric projects.

While Reeves remained tight-lipped on what major players will or won’t be a part of his Batman extended universe, he let loose a bombshell that could provide insight into which villains might be under-considered.  It turns out being a student of the game that is Batman isn’t just a cute phrase for Reeves—because his college screenwriting professor while studying at the University of Southern California was none other than Jeph Loeb, the famed comic book writer behind The Long Halloween, Hush, Dark Victory, and Haunted Knight. Reeves went on to admit that much of his approach and style to directing The Batman was influenced by Loeb.

“I could see that they had such a cinematic sensibility,” Reeves said regarding Loeb’s Batman comics. “I could say, ‘You’re doing a Godfather-esque thing, but within the Batman world. I get it.’”

While Reeves’ formative influences aren’t a foolproof theory-crafting thread worth breaking out a corkboard and yarn to predict whether villains like the Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, or Joker are next in line for Reeve’s film noir comic book exploration of Batman, they’re more than the nothing we had before his interview with EW.

According to EW, The Batman II‘s script is finished and is expected to begin filming next year.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.