The Penguin Easter Eggs Could Be Setting Up Clayface for The Batman II

The Batman Part II’s popular villain pick is looking a bit more likely.

The Penguin’s reported Easter eggs could be teasing Clayface for The Batman Part II. In a new piece from Entertainment Weekly, the HBO series is said to include Eve Karlo, played by Carmen Ejogo. The original character is a new addition to the Batman mythos, but she also shares a last name with Clayface! Basil Karlo tangles with The Dark Knight on multiple occasions and maybe we could see some part of the villain pop-up in the sequel. Karlo is a bit of a master of disguise in The Penguin as she dons different costumes to serve customers in Oz’s seedy operation.

After The Batman premiered to a lot of acclaim, fans began to theorize who the next bad guy to tussle with Robert Pattinson’s hero in the sequel. Director Matt Reeves has already told fans that Colin Farrel’s Penguin will be present for the return to Gotham. But, who else will join him? (There’s already a lot of indications we’ll see Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman again too.) A popular choice in those early months was Clayface because of the tragic origin story and the capacity to tell a harrowing tale with the same mental health concerns as the first movie. It would even make sense to tweak the origin a bit if they wanted to make Eve the version of the character in this universe.

One Big Thing That Could Keep Clayface Out Of The Batman Part II

Well director Matt Reeves has a predisposition for the grounded nature of his Gotham from the first movie. One thing most fans of The Batman praised about Robert Pattinson’s debut as the hero was the gritty tone of this detective story. It’s hard to argue that Reeves’ effort in the director’s chair wasn’t helped along by the relative absence of fantastical Batman elements.Using clay face in The Batman Part II would bring an interesting crossover with the wilder parts of the dark nights mythos. Not that long ago Reeves spoke to SFX Magazine about keeping his Gotham grounded and why that might make it hard for some of the more memorable Batman rogues to find their place in it.

“What was important to me was to find a way to take these pop icons, these mythic characters that everybody knows and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our world.” The filmmaker argues these movies and the upcoming shows get right up “to the edge of fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded.”

“It doesn’t mean that you won’t see characters that people love. That’s exactly what we want to do,” Reeves told the outlet. “Gentleman Ghost is probably pushed a bit too far for us to be able to find a way to do, but there is a fun way to think about how we would take characters that might push over into a bit of the fantastical and find a way to make sense of that.”

Now nothing has been announced about The Batman Part II just yet and more information will come after The Penguin completes his run on HBO and Max. One thing about Batman’s rogues is that there will always be a corner of those villains that lean more toward the fantastical. Even though Reeves might prefer some of the more grounded villains, it’s hard to avoid adversaries like Man-Bat, Mr. Freeze, Clayface, Killer Croc and others for very long. In addition, every single one of those villains would translate to an awesome movie from this filmmaker. Which will only make the fans more ravenous to see what he could come up with. Still, The Penguin gives all of us a lot to think about when it comes to Clayface and others making their way to Gotham City.

Who do you want to see be the villain of The Batman Part II? Check out all the pop culture discussion at @ComicBook!