Sebastian Stan has spent the past decade punching Nazis in the MCU as Bucky Barnes. But while fans are waiting to see what kind of emotional damage he’ll deliver next as the Winter Soldier in Avengers: Doomsday, it turns out that the other side wants him in Gotham City. According to Deadline, Stan is in talks to join Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II in an undisclosed role opposite Robert Pattinson.
If the deal closes (and it probably will), Stan would be stepping into a DC movie that already has an amazing cast ensemble: Pattinson returns as Bruce Wayne, with familiar faces like Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, and Barry Keoghan expected back after being revealed as the Joker in 2022’s The Batman.
Reeves has clearly been shopping the Avengers store lately. After reportedly landing Scarlett Johansson for a new role, possibly Andrea Beaumont (at least that’s what the internet believes), he’s now circling one of her longtime Marvel co-stars. Johansson and Stan shared the screen across multiple MCU films, and now they could share the same chemistry on the opposing side.
DC Studios hasn’t commented or confirmed anything yet, which is basically an invitation for fans to start guessing away at who he will play. The most popular guess so far is Harvey Dent. Stan, now 42, has the clean-cut charm and edge to sell the story of a district attorney who slowly cracks under the pressure of Gotham’s crime wave. It’s a role with weight, previously tackled by Aaron Eckhart and Tommy Lee Jones, and one that fits Reeves’ grounded take on Gotham.
The sequel is rumored to pull loosely from Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, even if Dent wasn’t central to that story, much like how The Batman cherry-picked elements from The Long Halloween and Year One rather than copying them outright.
Production is finally set to begin in spring, after several delays, with Warner Bros locking in an October 1, 2027 release date. That’s a long wait, but the studio knows what it’s holding. The first film became Warner Bros’ first major post-Covid theatrical win, pulling in $369.3 million domestically and $772 million worldwide despite the HBO Max day-and-date strategy.
Stan, for his part, knows how to juggle comic book movie parts. He recently returned as Bucky in Thunderbolts*. Jumping from Marvel antihero to potential Gotham power player feels less like a stretch and more like a smart career path. You don’t need to leave one universe for another. You can do both.
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