According to reports, Emmy-winning actor Tobias Menzies, who you’ve seen as Prince Philip in The Crown, Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones, and Frank/Black Jack Randall in Outlander, is in talks to join Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part II. The rumored role is none other than Amadeus Arkham, the troubled genius behind Gotham’s most notorious prison, Arkham Asylum.
PopFilm is claiming Menzies is on the shortlist, and it makes sense. The asylum was teased at the end of The Batman (2022), when Paul Dano’s Riddler found himself locked up there after his chilling murder spree. If Arkham Asylum becomes a central piece in the sequel, Menzies could be stepping into a role that shapes the mythology of Reeves’ Gotham in a big way.
Amadeus Arkham first appeared in the comics in the late 1970s. His story is pure tragedy: a brilliant doctor whose crusade against madness led him straight into it. The character has often been depicted as haunted by his family’s death and consumed by the very darkness he tried to treat. He even popped up in Paul Dano’s The Riddler: Year One comic, tying him directly to Reeves’ gritty world. If you add Martha Wayne’s connection to the Arkham family, things get even more interesting. Luke Roberts and Stella Stocker are reportedly back as Thomas and Martha Wayne, so flashbacks seem almost guaranteed.
Production on The Batman Part II has been a game of calendar roulette, but the latest word pegs it for a spring 2026 start at Warner Bros. Studios in London, with a theatrical release on October 1, 2027. Yes, that’s a long wait. Yes, DC fans will complain. And yes, they’ll still show up opening weekend. After all, the first film earned more than $770 million worldwide and proved Robert Pattinson’s emo-eyed Bruce Wayne could anchor an entire crime saga.
As for the villain, Reeves has been unusually tight-lipped but did drop one clue: the antagonist is “someone who’s never really been done in a movie before.” Fans immediately started throwing around names like Hush, the Court of Owls, and Hugo Strange. Reeves’ focus, though, is squarely on Bruce Wayne. As he told Josh Horowitz at the Emmys, “I never wanted to lose [Robert Pattinson] at the centre of these stories, and so that is really what we set our aim on.”
Where does Amadeus Arkham fit into all this? That’s the million-dollar question. With Gotham’s asylum stepping out of the shadows, Reeves might be setting up a more cerebral, horror-tinged chapter in his Elseworlds saga. Tobias Menzies, with his track record of playing men who unravel under pressure, feels like inspired The Batman Part II casting. If the deal goes through, fans might finally meet the man whose name has haunted its darkest halls for decades.
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