After a very buzzy panel for “The Batman” unveiled the first trailer for the new DC film, it seems Warner Bros. also managed to quietly slip in more casting news for Matt Reeves‘ take on the Caped Crusader. “Dunkirk” star Barry Keoghan was revealed to be part of the cast of “The Batman” as Officer Stanley Merkel.
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It is certainly strange that this news was not a part of the DC FanDome panel for “The Batman” or even its own press release, but it is still interesting that Keoghan will be joining the cast as Commissioner James Gordon’s first partner, Stanley Merkel. The character was introduced in Frank Miller’s “Batman Year One” comic.
Given that the film will show the beginnings of Batman’s career, it makes sense to include a character from early in Gordon’s career, especially played by an actor who can easily embody creepy, sociopathic characters like the type that would work with the Gotham Police Department. It will be interesting to see if Keoghan will stick around Gotham City, whether in possible sequels or the “Gotham PD” prequel series, since he will also be starring in Marvel’s “The Eternals.”
Though Keoghan wasn’t part of the trailer, an actor previously announced as part of the cast was finally confirmed to be in the trailer, Colin Farrell. As soon as the trailer debuted, fans were quick to point out that a figure shown towards the end of the trailer kind of looked like The Penguin. We know that Farrell will be playing Penguin in the film, but while the figure in the trailer fit the description of the character, it certainly doesn’t look like Farrell, but more like Richard Kind.
Well, it seems that the man in the trailer is, in fact, Colin Farrell, just under a lot of prosthetic makeup. After fans spent the weekend trying to solve this particular riddle (way more than they needed to solve the trailer’s actual riddle), it took Mike Marino, the makeup artist in charge of Farrell’s look, to confirm Farrell’s appearance in the trailer on Instagram.
