While no one has seen the finished film just yet, it’s clear from all the marketing, Matt Reeves’ take on “The Batman” sheds a lot of the silly comic book-y aspects of the character in favor of a realistic, gritty look at what drives a man to dress up as a bat to fight crime. And that’s by design, as the filmmaker is looking to keep this “grounded” with his take on the Caped Crusader, which means that there will have to be big changes, down the line, if he were to use a villain like Mr. Freeze.
Speaking to Collider, it’s clear Reeves is only really interested in exploring the more “grounded” parts of Batman and leaving the more ridiculous things to the comic books.
“In my view, I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything,” said Reeves. “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 continued, “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.”
Sorry, folks who were hoping to see Arnold Schwarzenegger return in a future ‘Batman’ film as Mr. Freeze to say some punny one-liner about being cold. It’s obvious that Reeves’ take on The Riddler, presenting a more psychopathic, serial killer version, is the way he’s going to treat the more out-there elements of the comic book lore. It does make you wonder what a “grounded” version of Mr. Freeze looks like, though, right? Is there any world where it doesn’t seem awful?
“The Batman” arrives in theaters on March 4. And it’s very serious business, people.
Here’s a clip of the aforementioned Schwarzenegger from “Batman and Robin,” presenting his take on Mr. Freeze: