Regardless of how many upcoming superhero movies are on the way, the biggest chunk of my focus is squarely drawn to any and all updates about Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part II, which are now thankfully beginning to surface with something resembling frequency. Following the jaw-dropping news in December that Scarlett Johansson is being courted to Gotham City, a new report points to one of the actress’ former Marvel Cinematic Universe co-stars is also set to bounce from one comic book franchise to the next.
This is a big one, too, as Variety reports the Oscar-nominated Sebastian Stan is currently in talks to join Johansson and Robert Pattinson in the highly anticipated sequel that sadly won’t be among other 2026 movie releases. If this news is legit — this outlet certainly has a better track record than social media-based leakers — it’s another huge pull for Reeves & Co. on the casting front, and one can only imagine what role he’ll be playing in the upcoming DC movie.
Oh, let's go ahead and start up some of that imaginative guesswork right now! There's actually one role that seems more likely than any other at this point, though it's based on unconfirmed info. Reports surfaced in the past few days that Matt Reeves was casting for not just Harvey Dent, but also his villainous Two-Face persona. It's been expected that Dent would rise up in this sequel, though less clear whether or not he'd get to his signature coin flips already.
Obviously the timing of the reports plays a big part in connecting those dots, but how flipping awesome would it be to see Sebastian Stan in that iconic role? He's 100% smooth and domineering enough to pull off being a high-powered Gotham attorney, so he's got that look already down. Plus, he's also well-versed in donning a lot of specific prosthetics, as was the case for 2024's excellent dramedy thriller A Different Man. (That film co-starred Adam Pearson, the neurofibromatosis-diagnosed actor whose first role was in 2013's Under the Skin with Scarlett Johansson. It's all connected!)
If Reeves doesn't tap Stan to play Two-Face, I think it would be awesome if he was introduced as Tommy Elliot, better known to comic fans as the legend-status villain Hush. This is more of a reach, but I'd speculated about The Penguin easter-egging the Elliot family into this canon by way of the name of the bridge connecting the different parts of town. It's not like there's a lack of "brown-haired white guy" villains in Batman's rogues gallery, but I think Stan would be a perfect Tommy in particular.
Sebastian Stan has been a core part of the MCU for years now, first appearing in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger and then ascending to the mainstage in the Winter Soldier sequel in 2014. He's appeared as Bucky in nine MCU films so far, with 2025 offering a double dose across Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*. He's reprised the role twice on the small screen, in live-action forThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier and in animated form for Marvel's What If...?
Stan isn’t even done with the MCU at this point, as he’ll return to the role of Bucky Barnes for even more action in the star-studded Avengers: Doomsday from Anthony and Joe Russo. It’s unconfirmed whether or not he’ll also be back for Secret Wars, but moving to Gotham City could be an indication that Bucky won’t survive Doctor Doom’s arrival.
The Batman: Part II is gearing up for a spring production ahead of its release set for October 2027.
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