After the events of today's DC FanDome, fans from all over the world are more excited than ever for everything coming from DC Films and DC television over the next few years. The DC Extended Universe in particular brought some major bombshells at the online event with news such as the roles for the cast of The Suicide Squad, the new title and cast of the Shazam! sequel, and the very first trailer for The Batman.
For the last of those three films, the trailer gave the first in depth look at highly anticipated characters like Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne and Colin Farrell's Penguin while giving fans all the hype needed for the DCEU's newest iteration of the Caped Crusader. Surrounding Pattinson and Farrell is an all star cast filled with veterans of not only Hollywood films, but specifically superhero movies. Another new name has just been added to the cast too, one that will take part in his second comic book movie in 2021 alone.
NEWS
Via Warner Bros.' official release in the Youtube description of The Batman trailer, the 2021 movie has added Barry Keoghan to the cast in the role of Officer Stanley Merkel. Nothing has been revealed yet about his role, but this will give Keoghan his second superhero movie role of 2021 after his appearance as Druig in The Eternals from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Barry Keoghan is just the latest name to be added to one of the most accomplished casts of any superhero movie in recent memory. His character, Stanley Merkel, is best known as the original partner of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon in the comics, which makes a lot of sense considering how early into Batman's history this film is set to explore.
Keoghan also has the distinct honor of being in a select group of actors to appear in both the MCU and the DCEU alongside actors like Laurence Fishburne (Man of Steel, Ant-Man and the Wasp), Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy, Shazam!) and Zachary Levi (Thor: The Dark World, Shazam!). In this film alone, he joins both Andy Serkis (Black Panther) and Jeffrey Wright (What If...?) as stars of both major comic book movie universes. It is unknown if he has started filming his scenes for The Batman at this point, and his work for Marvel's The Eternals is likely finished with the movie deep into post-production remotely.
The Batman is reportedly close to restarting filming with a few months of work completed thus far. Director Matt Reeves' solo movie is set to release theatrically for the DCEU on October 1, 2021.
