Batman’s future on the big screen is looking bright thanks to Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and if a sequel is to happen, Zack Snyder is right in suggesting Mr. Freeze as the next antagonist. As one of the most popular and beloved superheroes in history, Batman has branched out to all types of media for years, but his history on the big screen has been particularly interesting. Batman has gone through many ups and downs with his cinematic adaptations and is about to get a new chance with The Batman.
After Ben Affleck’s version of the Caped Crusader failed to connect with viewers in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League (and following the underperformance of the latter), Warner Bros. made some changes to the DC Extended Universe, and the biggest one was giving Batman a new opportunity but separate from the DCEU. Now with Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight is coming back in The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves, which will see a younger Bruce in his second year as detective and vigilante in a very dark and corrupt Gotham City.
The Batman will also feature some of the title hero’s most notable villains, as are Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin (Colin Farrell), and Edward Nashton/Riddler (Paul Dano), the latter serving as the main antagonist. Although The Batman won’t be released until March 2022, Warner reportedly plans to build a new shared universe, so talks about who could appear in a sequel have already begun. Even Zack Snyder has a suggestion for the villain: Mr. Freeze, and taking into account what Reeves is doing with the Riddler, he sounds like a perfect option for the sequel.
Dr. Victor Fries a.k.a. Mr. Freeze is a cryogenics expert who developed a freeze ray for GothCorp so he could preserve his terminally ill wife, Nora, until a cure could be found. However, an accident with the ray resulted in an explosion that killed Nora and lowered Fries’ body temperature, to the point where he needed to wear a cryogenic suit to survive. Fries took on the mantle of Mr. Freeze and swore revenge on those responsible for Nora’s death. Mr. Freeze has appeared in various adaptations of Batman, but the most (in)famous one is found in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin. Arnold Schwarzenegger played the character in its first live-action adventure, and it became notable for Schwarzenegger’s terrible performance, his campy costume, and his lame one-liner jokes. As a result of this, Mr. Freeze doesn’t have the best reputation, but this can be fixed in The Batman sequel.
Reeves’ approach to the Batman universe and its characters is a lot more grounded than Snyder’s and others (even Nolan’s), and he’s already reinventing the Riddler, another character left with a terrible reputation after his appearance in Schumacher’s Batman Forever. Reeves has turned the Riddler into a truly dangerous criminal, one who will spread fear in Gotham with his brutal murders and who is directly targeting Batman, so he could also redeem Mr. Freeze in a sequel. As seen above, Mr. Freeze has a truly tragic backstory, which gives writers the chance to give the character a lot of depth and make him a less-campy, more grounded, and obscure villain that could fit Pattinson’s Batman world while also allowing the movie to do something different.
There’s a lot of expectation and excitement around The Batman thanks to the tone Reeves and company have given it, Pattinson’s performance, Dano’s version of the Riddler, and the way they have approached Gotham City and its characters, so there’s also a lot of hope for the future of this take on the Caped Crusader. Mr. Freeze might not seem – at least right now, due to his complicated past – like a good option for an antagonist in The Batman sequel, but he has a lot of potential under Reeves’ vision, and this could be his very well-deserved redemption.
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