If you were asked to name all the actors who appear in each of the movies of the Dark Knight trilogy, you might overlook Cillian Murphy. After playing a major role as a supporting antagonist in Batman Begins, Murphy reappeared as Jonathan Crane AKA Scarecrow for a cameo in both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. But could he return for further appearances in the DCEU?
It’s certainly possible, as we never saw what happened to him at the end of the series and Murphy has now told GQ that he thinks Crane is still out there causing havoc in Gotham City. And it sounds like he had a blast playing the supervillain, who’s recognizable for his sack-like mask and use of hallucinogenic fear gas.
“You can have fun, you can be a bit broad, and that was fun for me to do. I had never done anything like that. I didn’t expect to come back. It was wonderful fun to reprise a character. Up until that point, I had never reprised a character. There was a joke on set that he is just the character that refuses to die. He’s still alive, out there somewhere.”
As fun as it would be to have Murphy show up as Scarecrow again later down the line, it seems unlikely given how closed off Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies are from the wider world of DC. What’s more, the actor himself has suggested before that he might like to hop over to the Marvel universe instead if he was ever to return to superhero cinema.
In any case, there’s every chance that the demented Arkham Asylum doctor could be rebooted in Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, which is due to see Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader face down a whole bunch of his most dangerous foes. Whoever the new Scarecrow is will have to beat Murphy’s interpretation in the Dark Knight trilogy, though, which is no easy feat.
