Zoë Kravitz may not be appearing in Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II, but there’s one major way DC can make up for it. Kravitz starred as Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman, in Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster The Batman, clinching a role previously made famous by the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway. The cat burglar spent much of the film center stage alongside Robert Pattinson’s Batman, making the news of her departure from the highly anticipated sequel quite a shock. Given that Kravitz has already acknowledged how early in Selina’s journey viewers met her character in The Batman, her lack of presence in the 2027 sequel also poses dangerous storytelling and fan service repercussions.
Fears of Kravitz’s impending absence were somewhat quelled when it was announced that Scarlett Johansson is officially in talks to join The Batman Part II. DC die-hards immediately went to work, pinpointing the various villains Reeves is most likely to explore as well as the ones Johansson is best suited for. Though rumor has it she’ll be playing a new love interest of Bruce Wayne’s, the fact remains that Kravitz and Pattinson’s dynamite chemistry in The Batman is one of the reasons Kravitz was cast as Catwoman in the first place. If she’s absent from the second film but appears in the third –– assuming there is a third, and assuming she’ll be interested in returning –– that appearance could feasibly be five or more years in the future, given how long it’s taken The Batman Part II to even achieve pre-production liftoff. Fortunately, DC has already uncovered a way to keep fans happy and Catwoman relevant, whether the company realizes it or not.
Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman Needs Her Own Show Like ‘The Penguin’
Let’s face it: Catwoman is one of the most popular characters in Batman lore, and Kravitz is an in-demand actress who needs no introduction. Keeping her off-screen until the hypothetical Batman Part III feels like a surefire way to disappoint and even alienate an enormous subset of the fandom. The only way DC can keep her character alive in Reeves’ universe, especially if she doesn’t even cameo in Part II, is by doing what the studio did with The Penguin and giving Catwoman her own show. This makes as much sense financially as it does creatively: Kravitz has appeared in many of cinema’s biggest franchises, including roles in X-Men: First Class, the Divergent series, Mad Max: Fury Road, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. She’s got star power to spare, and as of 2025, she’s an Emmy nominee for her work in Seth Rogen’s The Studio. She’s also no stranger to award-winning television, having held her own alongside Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Dern in two seasons of Big Little Lies. There’s also her seven million Instagram followers to consider. Kravitz is not only a talented actress; she draws crowds.
If that isn’t enough, she would have the success of The Penguin behind her, which won nine Emmy Awards and received critical acclaim for everything from its performances to its gritty world-building. Most importantly, people watched it– five million within four days of its premiere and over two million the night of its finale. A second spinoff in Reeves’ growing Bat-verse would inevitably draw similar interest from viewers, especially with a fan-favorite character like Catwoman back in the spotlight. As Kravitz said herself, Selina’s journey has only just begun, so there would be plenty for a solo show to explore following her departure from Gotham City at the end of The Batman. This would keep her active in the franchise and at the forefront of viewers’ minds even if she’s absent from Reeves’ sequel. Having also recently written, produced, and directed her first feature film –the 2024 psychological thriller Blink Twice starring former beau Channing Tatum– Kravitz could even be an asset behind the camera. It’s a no-brainer, all things considered: a solo Catwoman show would continue to expand a universe with a hungry fanbase, and also give Netflix a surefire hit now that the streaming giant is set to purchase Warner Bros. for a whopping $82 billion.
Is Catwoman’s Absence in ‘The Batman Part II’ a Necessary Evil?
Though it’s too soon to know for sure, there may be a valid reason why Catwoman won’t appear in The Batman Part II–– and it could have everything to do with the sequel’s rumored new villain. With speculation abounding that Johansson is playing anyone from Poison Ivy to Mrs. Freeze, some are wondering if she’ll actually be playing a character who did not originate in the DC Comics. That character is Andrea Beaumont, also known as the Phantasm– an antiheroine who first appeared in the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Beaumont was not just a love interest of Bruce Wayne’s; she was his fiancée, and later turned out to be the woman behind the criminal-killing mask. Since Johansson is rumored to be playing a love interest, and the Phantasm has grown to become a cult-favorite character, there’s a sizable possibility that this is a creative swing Reeves is ready to take. It could also explain why Catwoman isn’t as necessary in the sequel as she was in The Batman: Andrea’s storyline will require plenty of screen time to properly develop.
With Catwoman in the mix purely to appease fans, Reeves runs the risk of stuffing the second Batman film with too many villains, a fate comic book adaptations like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 have already suffered. Then again, he’s already managed to juggle the Riddler, the Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and Catwoman (not to mention a Joker cameo) without fumbling the ball, so if overcrowding is not one of his concerns, then he likely has other storytelling reasons for bumping Selina. Regardless, he can avoid fan upset by giving Catwoman her own spinoff –– without which her theoretical return in 2032’s The Batman Part III may go down with fans as well as sour milk.
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