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With production on The Batman just months away, the shape of the DCEU’s Caped Crusader reboot is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day.
Whether it be the number of villains set to feature in the film, and which exact villains will appear, more and more details about the Robert Pattinson-starring film seem to be leaked every week.
And frankly, based on everything I’ve heard about the project thus far, it appears that Warner Bros. has finally gotten their act together when it comes to adapting the Dark Knight to film following the extremely mediocre Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the patently awful Justice League.
According to this latest rumor from none other than in-the-know filmmaker Kevin Smith, director Matt Reeves is taking inspiration from one of the most iconic Batman stories of all-time to craft his 2021 film.
During a recent episode of the Fatman Beyond Podcast, Kevin Smith stated that he’s heard from a “good source” that 2021’s The Batman will be based on The Long Halloween:
“To be fair, I heard it [that the film would be based on The Long Halloween] too, and I heard it from a good source too,” Smith said.
Written by Jeph Loeb with artwork by Tim Sale, The Long Halloween — which was first released in 1996 — is widely considered to be one of the greatest Batman stories ever told.
For reference, here’s the official synopsis for The Long Halloween:
“Christmas. St. Patrick’s Day. Easter. As the calendar’s days stack up, so do the bodies littered in the streets of Gotham City. A murderer is loose, killing only on holidays. The only man that can stop this fiend? The Dark Knight. In a mystery taking place during Batman’s early days of crime-fighting, Batman: The Long Halloween is one of the greatest Dark Knight stories ever told.
Working with District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant James Gordon, Batman races against the calendar as he tries to discover who Holiday is before he claims his next victim each month. A mystery that has the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer, this story also ties into the events that transform Harvey Dent into Batman’s deadly enemy, Two-Face.“
This wouldn’t be the first time that The Long Halloween has served as an inspiration for a Batman-on-film iteration, as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight also drew elements from the beloved comic book arc:
“The Long Halloween has a great, triangular relationship between Harvey Dent and Gordon and Batman, and that’s something we very much drew from,” Nolan once said.
The Batman will be released in theaters in the United States on Friday, June 25, 2021.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Contact him: eric@brobible.com.