The Riddler’s goal in The Batman was to expose the depth of Gotham City’s corruption, murdering compromised politicians and police officers and making their corrupt activities public knowledge. Riddler was mostly successful, with the final portion of his plot – detonating explosives planted on Gotham’s seawall – flooding the city and killing many citizens. The flooding of Gotham City may seem to contradict Riddler’s goal of striking at Gotham’s corrupt elite, since it largely affects the city’s poorest communities, but Riddler is seemingly so consumed by a desire for revenge that he wishes to simply destroy Gotham as punishment for its corruption.
Matt Reeves Already Set Up The Court Of Owls For The Batman 2
The Riddler’s war on Gotham’s corruption and his flooding of the city set up the Court of Owls as potential villains for The Batman – Part II. Introduced in DC’s New 52 comic relaunch, the Court of Owls quickly became a popular group of antagonists, already having appeared in various Batman adaptations, from animated properties to video games and even the live-action TV show Gotham Knights. The Court of Owls is a centuries-old secret society comprised of Gotham’s wealthiest and most powerful families, who secretly control the city and assassinate anyone who might threaten them.
None of the Wayne family members were part of the Court of Owls, despite their generations-old wealth, but one of Bruce Wayne’s ancestors was murdered by the Court.
While discussing how The Batman ending sets up The Batman – Part II, director Matt Reeves noted:
It’s another mystery [in The Batman: Part II] that’s going to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption and it goes into places that he couldn’t even anticipate in the first one. The seeds of where this goes are all in the first movie, and it expands in a way that will show you aspects of the character you never got to see.
There is much speculation regarding the potential villains of The Batman – Part II, and the Court of Owls certainly aligns with Reeves’s words.
Reeves’s Gotham Is Perfectly Set Up For The Court of Owls
The Court of Owls would be fitting villains for Matt Reeves’s take on Gotham City and the Batman mythos. After all, 2022’s The Batman explored the depth of Gotham City’s corruption and Reeves’s comments note that The Batman – Part II will go even deeper. With much of Gotham’s politicians and police force being in the pocket of organized crime, who functionally rule the city, the revelation that a secret society of ultra-wealthy criminals is the true power behind the power would truly make the city rotten to the core and set up a suitably threatening new opponent for Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
The Court of Owls would be relatively easy for Reeves to integrate into his realistic vision of the Batman mythos and the Court has yet to make their cinematic debut, so their introduction would be refreshingly new ground for Batman films. Notably, some viewers have taken note of a potential hint toward the Court of Owls in The Penguin. The Penguin’s original surname of Cobblepot has been changed to Cobb, a name notably shared with William Cobb, who served the Court of Owls as a Talon – one of the Court’s deadly assassins.
William Cobb is an ancestor of Dick Grayson in DC’s comics, but perhaps he is related to Oz in Reeves’s universe.
The Penguin Makes The Court Of Owls An Even More Essential Villain For The Batman 2
The Penguin has shown that the Riddler’s flooding of Gotham City has only further widened the gap between rich and poor, with the former – having been largely unaffected by the flood – having more power and protection than before. Utilizing the Court of Owls as an even deeper layer of corruption in Gotham City would make the symbolic conflict between the two classes become literal. Moreover, Batman’s role would become more important than ever, since he would be one of the only people capable of standing against the Court of Owls.
Between Matt Reeves’s comments about The Batman – Part II’s story exploring even deeper corruption than what was exposed by the Riddler in the first movie, and The Penguin’s further examination of the criminal underworld of Gotham City, the filmmaker’s DC universe seems perfectly poised to adapt the Court of Owls. Whether there are more teases to the Court of Owls’ potential involvement in Gotham City in The Penguin remains to be seen, but they would make a perfect villain for either The Batman – Part II or the following movie in Reeves’s franchise.
