A lot of fans are of the opinion, especially when it comes to the superhero genre, that the origin story for well-known figures should be consigned to the scrapheap. After all, you’d have to travel pretty far to find somebody who didn’t know that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, or Bruce Wayne’s parents were gunned down in an alley.
However, we’re willing to make an exception in the case of The Batman, if only for the fact the latest reboot for the Dark Knight is looking to paint its protagonist and those in his orbit in a different fashion than we’ve seen before. Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader is in his sophomore year on the job, Oswald Cobblepot is rising up the criminal ranks, and Paul Dano’s Riddler is more of a serial killer than a scenery-chewer in a unitard.
In the case of Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman, she’s not quite the feline-inspired thief everyone knows and loves, but in an interview with Empire, she admitted that The Batman will see her taking the first steps in that direction.
“This is an origin story for Selina. So, it’s the beginning of her figuring out who she is, beyond just someone trying to survive. I think there’s a lot of space to grow and I think we are watching her become what I’m sure will be the femme fatale.”
Of course, this will inevitably lead to a more comic-accurate interpretation in the sequels, but The Batman is still poised to lean on the Bruce/Selina dynamic to power the emotional core of a narrative that’s bathed in its fair share of darkness.
