Hot on the heels of Jeffrey Wright being named as a likely candidate to play Commissioner Gordon in Matt Reeves' The Batman, we've got another piece of casting news for that movie. Sort of.
Deadline is reporting that Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play "a villain" in the upcoming film, though there's not much more information than that. In fact, this is the entire relevant paragraph in Deadline's report:
EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill is in talks to play a villain in the upcoming Warner Bros. reboot of Batman which stars Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader. Deals aren’t signed yet, but that’s what we are hearing at this minute.
Not a huge amount to go on there, so in the time-honoured "vague news is no news is good news" tradition, it's time to get the fan speculation engines fired up. Will Hill play a villain we've seen previously - The Penguin? Riddler? Poison Ivy? - or will he take on a previously-unseen role, such as the very serious actor/villain Clayface? The possibilities, while not limitless, are certainly broad. We'd like to see Hill play Calendar Man, but we probably love the idea of Calendar Man more than we actually love Calendar Man himself.
In fact, not even the filmmakers seem to know: according to THR, the talks are so tentative at this stage because they can't decide which character to have him play. Could be The Riddler. Could be The Penguin. Could be neither, if they can't come to some agreement. Whatever the result, THR claims the film will feature "many" villains, so casting stories will likely continue well into 2020. Let rip with your predictions in the comments below.
The Batman releases on June 25, 2021, whether Hill's in it or not.