Robert Pattinson’s debut outing as one of cinema’s most iconic characters became the latest high-profile project to fall victim to the Coronavirus recently, as production on The Batman was shut down for at least two weeks, although it may end up being a while longer given the continued increase in cases around the world.
In recent weeks, plenty of set photos from filming have been making their way online, giving us a much clearer look at Pattinson, or at least his stunt doubles, in full costume, while director Matt Reeves tried to stem the leak of grainy camera footage by releasing several official stills of the Caped Crusader standing next to the Batmobile.
Despite the huge number of images that have been snapped on set, we’re still no closer to finding out any concrete plot details on The Batman, other than the fact that the story picks up during the title character’s second year on the job as a costumed vigilante, as well as the heavy detective and noir elements that have been rumored ever since Ben Affleck was attached to write and direct.
However, an anonymous tipster recently posted several cryptic comments to Twitter before hastily deleting them, and now some internet sleuths have pieced the clues together to discover that The Batman may feature the death of a hugely important character. Per the rumors, the plot involves a comic-accurate death, but it doesn’t involve the title character breaking his cardinal rule and doing the deed himself. Instead, rumors point to it being Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler Alfred who meets his demise in the movie, setting Batman off on a third-act revenge mission to bring his guardian’s killer to justice.
That would certainly be a plot twist that we haven’t seen before in a big screen Dark Knight flick, and it does have precedence in the comic books. It also makes sense for Andy Serkis to stick around for just one movie given his busy schedule because as well as running motion capture studio The Imaginarium, he’s also deep in production for his next directorial effort Venom 2 and executive producing Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins. And so, a one-and-done contract for The Batman would free him up to pursue other projects in the future, as well as giving the audience a huge shock if and when Alfred kicks the bucket.
