With The Batman currently shooting, we’re seeing a steady trickle of leaks from production. These have ranged from long-lens photos of the sets under construction to our first full look at Robert Pattinson’s Batsuit. But now we might have something even juicier, as we’ve got what seems to be the first official image from the film. It should be said though that no one has been able to track down exactly where it originated. So though it looks very plausibly real to me, perhaps take it with a small pinch of skepticism.
As you can see below, the image shows a man sitting in a luxury chair (apparently the same one seen in one of Matt Reeves’ previous tweets), with his head wrapped in duct tape and “No More Lies” scrawled across his face in red paint. Judging from the tightness of the tape, it seems likely that he’s dead, but who killed him?
Well, judging by what we know about the villains in the movie there are two obvious candidates. The first is Colin Farrell’s Penguin (aka Oswald Cobblepot). In the comics, the Penguin has long had a chip on his shoulder against the Waynes for ruining the reputation of his family. So, this could be a message to Batman (or Bruce Wayne) that the lies his parents perpetuated are coming back to haunt him.
But something about this just doesn’t seem like his style. I think the top suspect has to be Paul Dano’s Riddler (and many on social media seem to agree). He’s had a number of origin stories over the years, but one element that’s remained fairly constant is him suffering some kind of injustice and wildly over-reacting to it.
In addition, a common theme in contemporary Batman tales is that the Waynes weren’t as squeaky clean as you’d assume. This kind of story hasn’t been explored properly in the movies, so we may see the family legacy coming back to haunt Bruce. Whatever the case, if this image is real, it certainly hints that The Batman isn’t going to pull any punches.