There are as many questions as there are answers every time something official is announced about The Batman Part II. The latest camera test and release date delay for The Batman Part 2 confirms this by showing us enough of Robert Pattinson’s Batman to know that the cowl’s ears have changed slightly since we saw him last in The Batman, for instance, but we still have no clue if the suit is different in any way.
Likewise, while we have official confirmation that Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, and Charles Dance have been cast in The Batman Part 2, it’s surprisingly less clear today who they’ll actually be playing. If Stan is playing who he’s recently been rumored to be playing in this upcoming movie, however, it could be a sort of spiritual redemption for one of the most lackluster villains in Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham trilogy.
Batman: Arkham Cast Zsasz Aside
The Batman villain Victor Zsasz has an odd history in the Arkhamverse. He’s quite special, debuting as the first villain that players apprehend in Batman: Arkham Asylum (unless you count Joker, who Batman technically apprehended before the events of the game). Indeed, Zsasz is later subdued while holding Dr. Penelope Young hostage in Warden Quincy Sharp’s office, and blends in as one of many ordinary inmate enemies that players fight in the game’s combat challenges.
Zsasz then goes on to have a story-spanning side quest in Batman: Arkham City, wherein Batman must race to various payphones ringing throughout Arkham City and trace Zsasz’s location via each call while players listen to him recount his backstory. It’s not an incredibly entertaining side quest gameplay-wise, but it’s nice that he plays a bigger role in Batman: Arkham City than he did in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Strangely, Batman: Arkham Knight neglects Zsasz almost completely. His handiwork can be found in order to solve a Riddler challenge, and players actually do get to see him via a brief cameo in a Gotham City surveillance feed, yet he does not appear in Batman: Arkham Knight otherwise.
It’s probably true that there wasn’t much more that the games could’ve done for the character, with him not being terribly interesting or dynamic when it comes to possible gameplay or boss fight scenarios. Batman: Arkham Knight’s underwhelming side quests are outrageous enough without Zsasz being added to that foundation, but not having him appear meaningfully was certainly alarming after he had been in both of Rocksteady’s previous games.
The Batman Part II Can Give Zsasz The Love He Deserves
The Batman Part 2’s casting is hazy at best, and that may be deliberate. For example, it was previously reported and teased that Sebastian Stan was playing Harvey Dent in the sequel, with Scarlett Johansson playing Harvey’s wife, Gilda, and Charles Dance playing Harvey’s father.
Recently, though, it’s been rumored that Stan is playing Victor Zsasz, Johansson is playing a non-fantastical bioterrorist Poison Ivy (in a similar vein as The Batman’s Riddler was, probably), and Dance is playing a Court of Owls member. Zsasz is an interesting choice for a villain in a Batman movie, especially if he’s the main antagonist of The Batman Part 2, and, with Stan possibly playing him, there’s no way his role and treatment wouldn’t be terrific.
Stan’s Zsasz casting has weight due to the actor being seen clean-shaven and bald, which would match the traditional look of the character; nonetheless, he may simply be bald in order for wigs and prosthetics to be applied more easily.
Zsasz appeared in Batman Begins, but the character’s role in Christopher Nolan’s movie was fleeting and not necessarily memorable (sort of like Zsasz’s role in the Arkhamverse, ironically). Conversely, David Messina played a wonderful Zsasz in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), giving The Batman Part 2’s interpretation of the character a high bar to clear.