Scott Snyder chimed in on which villains he'd like to see in a sequel to The Batman, urging director Matt Reeves to go bigger and bolder with his version of Gotham City.
"I hope they use a villain that they haven't used yet," Snyder wrote in his Best Jackett Press newsletter. "I hope they use Clayface, for example. I think Clayface could be redone in a really exciting way, especially in these times with all kinds of science-based stuff and also the idea of identity, all of it. I think he could be great. Of course, I'm partial to them using the Court of Owls. I've been amazed by the clips of the cast and crew talking about the Court of Owls so much."
Snyder wrote Clayface in Issues #19-20 of his landmark Batman run alongside artist Greg Capullo and co-created the Court of Owls in the series' first major story arc, which ran from Issues #1-11. The film's cast has frequently brought up the Court of Owls as potential Batman villains in future movies, with Robert Pattinson himself hinting that he'd love to see his take on the Dark Knight collide with the secret society. Snyder added that the Court would be great villains "for a destroyed Gotham, because that's when they would swoop in."
"They were probably behind some of the Riddler stuff, right?" Scott speculated, referring to the Riddler's master plan to expose corruption in The Batman. "If I was writing it, they'd come in and say 'now Gotham is ours to reshape…' That would be amazing. And then in the third movie you bring in the Joker. What I would do is in movie #2, Batman needs the help of, or goes to Arkham to consult, villains about the Court of Owls or about Clayface and whatever. You get to know those villains, and then in #3 all bets are off and Joker comes in. That's what I would do if I was structuring it."
Two brief scenes in The Batman featured Barry Keoghan as the Joker, one of which sees Batman asking his incarcerated nemesis for advice on the Riddler's crime spree. The scene was ultimately removed from the theatrical cut but later released online. Reeves has stated that despite including the Clown Prince of Crime in the film, the Joker won't be in the Batman sequel.
Aside from his thoughts on future villains, Snyder stressed that he loved the film, which incorporated multiple concepts from his run on the Batman books, from the content lenses that Bruce Wayne uses to record his surroundings to Batman's tactical outfit, which bears a resemblance to his gear in Snyder's "Zero Year" origin story arc. Snyder also mentioned that The Batman's finale -- where the Dark Knight realizes that he needs to be a symbol of hope rather than vengeance -- resonated with him.
"And I love the emotional thing they were trying to say at the end of the movie, which I think was literally the messenger [sic] from 'Zero Year' almost word for word," Snyder wrote. "...The words are in the comic about how he realizes he needs to be a symbol of hope, a symbol of inspiration, not a symbol of darkness. Instead of scaring bad people into the shadows, you bring good people out into the light in these dangerous times. And for me, that makes him happy."
Source: Best Jackett Press