Given the incredible success of The Batman, we will most likely be getting a sequel, even if one hasn't officially been greenlit just yet. With a strong showing at the box office and mostly positive reviews, The Batman has left viewers wondering where the story could go next in The Batman 2. On Twitter, Mr. Freeze has been trending as thousands of fans have been nominating the chilly supervillain to appear as the antagonist in the potential sequel to square off with Robert Pattinson's Batman.
"If this new Batman can use contact lenses that can perfectly record everything he sees and analyse it in real time and have a wing suit that can deploy almost out of thin air I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to use Mr Freeze in a sequel. All he does is shoot ice," one popular tweet reads.
"Now that I’ve seen The Batman, I can safely say that Mr. Freeze should be the next villain of the sequel," says another fan. "My favorite in Batman’s rogues gallery and needs done justice on the big screen. Reeves would kill it."
Offering some fan casting along with it, another fan endorses Mr. Freeze for The Batman 2 by tweeting, "Mads Mikkelsen is probably my top choice for Mr. Freeze in a potential The Batman 2."
Mr. Freeze, whose real name is Dr. Victor Fries (pronounced "freeze"), was created for DC Comics by Dave Wood and Sheldon Moldoff, first appearing in Batman No. 121 in 1959. He was popularized by Batman: The Animated Series when he was given a new backstory as a cryogenics expert who must keep his body below sub-zero temperatures in order to stay alive after a laboratory mishap. Wearing a cryogenic suit, Mr. Freeze resorts to a life of crime with his main goal of finding a cure for his terminally ill wife, Nora. Mr. Freeze was previously played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1997 movie Batman & Robin.
The good news for fans wanting Mr. Freeze in The Batman 2 is that Matt Reeves has already said he's open to the idea. As the director explains, "In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right? I think there's actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great."
He added, "So, I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don't think that this one is necessarily, it doesn't lean as hard into the fantastical, I guess. But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here? And so that's kind of my view, how I see it."
The World of The Batman Will Be Expanded Upon
The Batman 2 is most likely happening, even if an official announcement hasn't yet been made. This new Bat-verse will also be further fleshed out with multiple spinoff shows at HBO Max. One planned spinoff will follow the officers of the Gotham Police Department while another will bring back Colin Farrell to chronicle Oswald Cobblepot's rise as Penguin. Reeves has also teased another spinoff that's focused on Arkham Asylum.
“We’re doing this Penguin series and one of the great things about that is Colin Farrell — he’s like you’ve never seen him. He’s so incredible and he’s a scene-stealer," Matt Reeves told the Toronto Sun. "Along the way, we thought maybe we could do (his character) as a series. So I talked to HBO Max and showed them Colin in the movie and spoke to them about what this could be and they said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So we’re doing that and we’re doing another series that connects to Arkham (Asylum)."
Speaking about sequel possibilities, Reeves suggested that everyone first wanted to see how the audience responded to the release of The Batman. The director said, "We are talking and thinking about the next movie, but to be honest with you, at the moment, I really want the audience to connect with this. And I really believe they will because I think Rob is an incredible Batman.”
The Batman is now playing in movie theaters everywhere. The fan art of Giancarlo Esposito as Mr. Freeze in the image above comes to us from ApexForm.