Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Scarlett Johansson is going to have a very, very busy couple of years. Jurassic World Rebirth’s sequel is already locked in, she’s just been confirmed as leading the new Mike Flanagan entry in The Exorcist series and now she’s off to Gotham! Probably!

The artist formerly known as Black Widow is in final talks to star alongside the returning Robert Pattinson and presumably Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright and Andy Serkis and Barry Keoghan’s possible Joker in 2027’s The Batman Part II. Mattson Tomlin in has co-written it with director Matt Reeves.

So who’s she playing? Well, let’s remember the Reeves Batman movie (and The Penguin spinoff, and who knows maybe he’s back too!) exists outside the DC movie universe being built by James Gunn and co. That’s a blessing, frankly. Not because the Gunn DC Stuff is bad, it’s great! But because if there’s one thing the joyless trudge of so much multiverse fiction in the last few years has taught us it’s that sometimes one universe, like one egg, is enough.

That being said, my money is on someone fun. She’d make a great Barbara Gordon (who is referenced in an unfilmed scene of Part 1) or Vicky Vale. Hell, change things up, make her a younger Doctor Leslie Thompkins. But if you asked me to put money on it? I’d say Pamela Isley, botanist turned ecoterrorist turned villain turned occasional hero. Partially because she’d rock it and partially because the G Willow Wilson scripted comic has confirmed Isley as one of the most compelling characters in the Batman canon.

Start your guessing engines! We’ll find out a bit before 2027.