As is true with any new installment in a live-action or animated superhero-related franchise, The Batman: Half 2’s casting has at all times been extremely anticipated. Who’s solid and what position they’re enjoying is an early, presumptuous glimpse at what characters will seem, in addition to how they could be portrayed.
That stated, predicting what a personality’s portrayal will likely be like isn’t at all times so simple as matching an actor to a personality, even when they appear like they’re solid completely primarily based on how they give the impression of being or what earlier roles they’ve had.
It wasn’t apparent what Robert Pattinson’s Batman could be like, for instance, and it turned out that Matt Reeves and Mattson Tomlin’s tackle the character would function far much less of Bruce Wayne because the nihilistic, bat-silhouetted vigilante was the point of interest. For The Batman: Half 2, there hopefully gained’t be a take like Paul Dano’s Riddler on the subject of Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent.
The Batman: Half 2’s Two-Face Has Formally Been Forged
Following Scarlett Johansson’s mysterious casting in The Batman: Half 2, it has now reportedly been revealed that Sebastian Stan will likely be enjoying Harvey Dent. Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent casting is thrilling as a result of, on paper, he looks like an amazing alternative: he’s conventionally engaging; he naturally gravitates towards roles the place the character has a darkish or troubled facet; and he’s solely a number of years older than Robert Pattinson, which might promote the idea of The Batman’s Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne having been childhood buddies, if that’s the route Matt Reeves wished to go together with their dynamic.
Nevertheless, this final level bears the basis of the issue right here: we don’t know the course Matt Reeves will take with the character, and a worst-case situation could also be if such fantastic casting is as soon as once more underutilized or disfigured, as was arguably the case with Paul Dano’s Riddler in The Batman.
The Batman’s Riddler Casting is Impressed, However the Character Underwhelmed
On paper, Paul Dano was an outstanding casting alternative for Edward Nashton’s Riddler if the character had been extra devoted to conventional, basic depictions of the query mark-clad conundrum artist. In DC Comics and most different iterations throughout all DC-inspired media, Riddler is sensible but petty—a implausible narcissist and megalomaniac with extreme obsessive-compulsion who should show he can outsmart Batman.
However whereas the villain was excellent as a mysterious serial killer who skulks about Gotham Metropolis in a fancy dress—like Batman, because the film incessantly parallels—the character in The Batman is debatably undone when he’s unmasked and his 4chan-esque livestreamer antics froth to the floor. Fortunately, Harvey’s descent into villainy is often extra nuanced on account of his relationships with Bruce and Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, and his improvement ought to help that.
Aaron Eckhart’s Two-Face, eclipsed by Heath Ledger’s Joker, in The Darkish Knight proved how easily and tragically Harvey may be tailored in live-action, particularly as an idyllic public determine who’s secretly fairly unwell. In the meantime, Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face, eclipsed by Jim Carrey’s Riddler, in Batman Ceaselessly was appropriately eccentric given the film’s vibrant whimsy.
In protection of how this Riddler was depicted, his potential for his improvement as a trauma-riddled orphan was undercut by a subplot tangent with Selina Kyle’s Catwoman and her father, Carmine Falcone—to not point out a subplot inside this subplot the place Bruce is momentarily and wrongly led to consider that his father was morally ambiguous—that later makes its approach again to the primary plot with Riddler.
Sebastian Stan’s Harvey Dent is Hopefully a Gradual (Chemical) Burn
It’s unknown whether or not Harvey will stay ‘Harvey’ for everything of the sequel, presumably teasing his position in a DC Elseworlds HBO challenge like The Penguin, the place he may very well be lively as a district lawyer or mayor lengthy earlier than changing into Two-Face. Likewise, it’s anybody’s guess as as to whether or not he’ll already be exhibiting signs of a Large Unhealthy Harv or Two-Face persona, not to mention if he’ll be splashed with acid in a courtroom.
If this DC Elseworld continuity preserves Harvey and might chorus from instantly diving headlong right into a Two-Face origin, it may very well be implausible and permit an eventual Two-Face transformation to simmer as a substitute of burn. Regardless, how Harvey and Two-Face are tackled will likely be make-or-break for the character, because it was for Riddler.
Harvey isn’t as large a problem, inherently, and Sebastian Stan’s position within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is paradoxically one thing of a parallel to Dent. Sebastian Stan’s portrayal of James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes would possibly show the extent of heat and conviction that Harvey has, whereas his portrayal of Bucky below the brainwashed and menacing guise of Winter Soldier is a good glimpse of how Harvey’s dissociative id dysfunction might present itself in moments of grief, rage, and vulnerability.
So, except what’s deliberate for the character is bewildering and unprecedented, Sebastian Stan may very well be an astonishing Harvey. After all, the identical may very well be stated about Paul Dano as Riddler, and solely time will inform how zany or novel The Batman: Half 2 is in comparison with its predecessor.