Could we be getting a grounded version of Mr Freeze in The Batman sequel? Writer/director/producer Matt Reeves has dropped several tidbits in various interviews that have us speculating this to be the case, and we think he’d be the perfect villain! Read on to find out why.
The Batman 2 Likely Set During Winter
#TheBatman2 will likely take place in Winter ❄️🦇
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 12, 2024
(via @Collider) pic.twitter.com/gvC1NoSUey
The Batman opens on Halloween night and takes place over the course of a week. At the end of the film, we see Gotham City flooded and Batman aiding with recovery. Meanwhile, there is a newly formed power vacuum in the wake of Carmine Falcone’s death. With Gotham prime for the taking, The Penguin will chronicle Oz Cobb’s ascension in the criminal underworld.
In a September 12 interview with Collider, Reeves, who served as Executive Producer of The Penguin, confirmed that the series will pick up right after the events of The Batman: “The story plays out over the next weeks that take you toward the end of the year. We don’t play Christmas or New Years, but we’re getting there.” This teases that The Batman 2 could take place in December around the holidays.
This would work really well on so many levels. One, it could evoke a similar vibe to the Batman Christmas classics we’ve already gotten such as Batman Returns and season 1, episode 2 of The New Batman Adventures: “Christmas with the Joker.” Plus, it is a time when Gotham’s rich will all be out Christmas shopping and exchanging lavish gifts, which can further highlight the divide between the rich and poor classes in Gotham, something that was a heavy focus in the first film.
Since the first movie featured Halloween, and The Penguin will likely take place around Thanksgiving, it would be cool for The Batman 2 to take place at Christmas and New Years. There is a great story from comics called Batman: The Long Halloween, in which Batman must uncover the identity of a mysterious serial killer who strikes only on holidays. Matt Reeves has credited this story as a massive influence on The Batman, so it wouldn’t be surprising for him to incorporate the holiday element into his Batman saga.
Aesthetically, setting The Batman 2 during winter will also work as a natural progression from the rainy, gritty atmosphere of the first film into a colder, snowy Gotham. The winter season would nicely mirror the emotional isolation and bleakness of Batman’s character. Plus, imagine the opportunities this would bring for stunning visuals such as Batman covered in snow, Gotham City decked out in Christmas lights, and maybe even a frozen-over Gotham following the flood.
THE BATMAN PART II TAKING PLACE IN THE WINTER?? I NEED SHOTS OF BATMAN IN THE SHOW LIKE THIS https://t.co/YSa2470cm8 pic.twitter.com/8VbtY47eWt
— sabrina 🦇 (@nightwaynes) September 12, 2024
We are just scratching the surface of why Wintertime will work so well as the setting of The Batman 2. Oh, and by the way, what climate do penguins thrive in? 😉
Matt Reeves’ Grounded Gotham
I know what you’re thinking, how could an outlandish character like Mr. Freeze possibly work in the grounded version of the world established in the first film? In a recent interview with SFX, Reeves joked about how we won’t see unrealistic characters like Gentleman Ghost in his Batman world, and spoke of the balance he wanted to strike between grounded and fantastical: “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. We might push to the edge of the fantastical but we would never go into full fantastical. It’s meant to feel quite grounded.”
In fact, going back to a press event when Reeves was promoting The Batman in 2022, as reported by Collider, he even expressed his interest in adapting Mr. Freeze: “I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen, even the idea of something like Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right? I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great.”
So, if we do see Mr. Freeze in The Batman 2, he likely won’t have a cartoonish freeze gun or be quipping ice-related puns. However, a grounded story that strips back these fantastical elements and focuses on the key themes of Mr. Freeze’s story could absolutely work!
How a Grounded Mr. Freeze Could Work
For those unfamiliar with Mr. Freeze’s tragic origin story, as given to him in Batman: The Animated Series and subsequently adapted into all other medias, he was once a GothCorp scientist by the name of Victor Fries (pronounced freeze) who studied cryogenics and was looking for a way to preserve his temrinally ill wife. On the verge of a breakthrough, he is interrupted by the CEO of the company who shows up to quite literally pulls the plug on his work. Desperate to save his wife’s life, Victor franktily pulls a gun on his boss, who knocks him back into cryogenic chemicals. In classic comic book fashion, these chemicals alter him so that he can only survive in sub zero temperatures, requiring him to wear a cryo-suit.
The Batman 2 can adapt most of this origin story and portray Mr. Freeze as a sympathetic villain who was desperate to save his wife. In the agony of her loss, he wants revenge on those responsible for her death and he resorts to crime to steal the tech and money needed to continue his work in her memory. This story would perfectly match the moral ambiguity set in the first movie.
Batman: The White Knight | Mr.Freeze | By Sean Murphy pic.twitter.com/8aTkFyy6uV
— The Comic Archives (@HeroicHaven) October 2, 2023
It would be interesting to see how they might handle the cryo-suit, as that pushes the boundaries of fantastical, as Reeves would say. However, there are several angles I think they could explore. I think they might be able to get away with a version where the cryo-chemicals damage his skin, so he has to wear that suit. Another thing they could do is make it so Victor has cancer or some form of illness, so he wears the suit as a way to slow or stop whatever is killing him. Or what if, through his research Victor theorizes that wearing this cryo-suit will make him age slower and therefore make him a step closer to immortality. Or maybe it’s all in his head and Victor just thinks he will die if he takes the suit off. Maybe they just do Mr. Freeze without the cryo-suit, but I think it would be very plasudible and way cooler for them to come up with a grounded explanation of the suit like that.
As to whether or not he’ll be freezing people and structures around Gotham, it’s harder to say. One thing they could do is make it so that Freeze is freezing victims in cryo-chambers to preserve their organs for some sinister reason. Maybe they can even pull off a grounded version of his freeze-gun that shoots liquid nitrogen or CO2 and incapacitates enemies by giving them some form of extreme frost bite and hypothermia. That would be super cool to see! The liquid nitrogen tank on his back would also further justify the suit.
Why Mr. Freeze Would Be Perfect
Mr. Freeze in The Batman 2 would work perfectly with the movie’s winter setting. The obvious reason being that the icy, snowy climate would be a natural ally to Mr. Freeze. This woud also make any version of a freeze-gun he might have a lot more believable and effective if the temperature outside is already below the freezing point. Mr. Freeze in the setting of a snowy Gotham City would also make for some very stunning visuals that would be nothing short of epic.
Another reason why Mr. Freeze would be the perfect villain is because of the way he serves as a foil to Batman. Both characters lose someone they love and are motivated by a desire to get justice for that loss, and both put themselves above the law donning crazy costumes. Bruce’s parents are killed right in front of his eyes as a child, so he fights that injustice by fighting criminals. Victor’s wife was killed by his boss when he pulled the plug on her cryo-chamber, so Victor looks to get what he feels is justice by killing his former boss. This contrast highlights the inherent goodness of Batman, who could have just as easily resorted to crime and evil ways.
The Batman 2 could draw further personal connections between the two connections by making this version of Victor a former employee of Wayne Enterprises. Maybe he blames Bruce for the budget cuts to his department that ultimately kill his wife. This would be similar to the personal connection drawn between Batman and Riddler in The Batman in which Riddler sees Bruce and his father as the epitome of Gotham’s corruption that he is seeking to unmask.
Mr. Freeze as the main villain would elevate the emotional stakes of the film, not just because of this personal connection, but also because he would serve as a mirror for Batman to have to confront his own internal struggles and come to terms with the ways he and Mr. Freeze are similar. Most of all, Batman feels sorry for Victor Fries, and we the viewer will feel sorry for him too, and that could bring a strong emotional core to the conflict of this movie.
So we all want Mr. Freeze as the villain for The Batman 2 right? ❄️ pic.twitter.com/ks1Jo2ff6f
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) November 28, 2022
What do you think? Do you like the idea of Mr. Freeze and a wintery Gotham? How would you handle making the character more grounded? Is there anything else you want to see in The Batman 2? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading!