THE BATMAN Ending Explained Sequel Theories: No Man’s Land, Bruce Wayne, [SPOILER] And More

Ok so the ending of The Batman has some major things going on with it.

We see the introduction of a classic character through Barry Keoghan, get the destruction of Gotham and also watch as Selina Kyle heads off to Bludhaven.

With Matt Reeves stating he’d love to create a trilogy, I thought we’d take a look at where we leave things off to theorise on what could be coming next. Full spoilers ahead so if you haven’t had a chance to check it out then I highly recommend that you check out now. Riddle Me this, who loves a thumb drive…with a…a thumbs up on it…this guy…

We’ll just skip the crap jokes and get into it but cheers for checking out the video.

Now the ending of the movie has the Riddler meeting a mysterious Arkham Inmate played by Barry Keoghan. There’s been lots of evidence to say that this is actually the Joker including comments made by Matt Reeves and Barry’s brother who got drunk a couple of months ago and posted about it on Facebook.

The Riddler and Joker have somewhat of a tenuous friendship in the comics and though they’ve worked together in the past, I think that going forward they’ll actually become enemies. The Graphic Novel The War of Jokes and Riddles would definitely provide a basis for this and in case you don’t know this is a year two story that was set after The Riddler had turned Gotham into a wasteland in the events of Dark City.

The Riddler actually flooded the entire city and this is pretty much what we see happen at the end of the movie. Shoutouts to Grace Randolph for also pointing out that we get the line ‘he’s spoken for’ at the end of it which is something that Selina also gives lip service to in the movie.

Now Dark City was a New 52 story whereas War and Riddles was a Rebirth one but there were several nods to the former even though they may not strictly be the same continuity. That being said though, the timeframe is right to create something like this and I think they’ll likely combine elements.

Gothams Criminal Power Vacuum

In the Long Halloween after the death of Falcone happened the entire landscape of crime in the city changed. Whereas Batman Year One and the year two stories dealt primarily with the mob, Carmine’s death massively altered things and we very much got the rise of the supervillain.

The power vacuum that has now been created is the perfect point to have a war that has the supervillains all fighting for dominance in the middle of Gotham.

However, I think the biggest influence will be the books Cataclysm, Road To No Man’s Land and No Man’s Land itself.

The first of these had an earthquake hit Gotham that completely levelled the city and destroyed several properties and lives.

This led to Road To No Man’s Land and No Man’s Land which was very much about the city falling apart. This was somewhat touched upon in The Dark Knight Rises and we watched as the citizens attempted to make a life for themselves whilst the Criminals fought for control.

No Man’s Land pulled in several supervillains who chose their sides and was very much a civil war between the criminals of the most notorious comic book city.

They ended up creating their own territories amongst the landscape and going ahead this would be the perfect way for Reeves to introduce villains from Batman’s rich rogue’s gallery. This could include Bane who was foreshadowed when Batman injected himself with a green substance at the end of the movie. This sent him into an uncontrollable rage in which he almost killed someone and therefore I think that he’ll cast this to the side. However, Bane might not see the bad side of it as he is happy to kill people and thus he could end up taking it and using it as a steroid as he does in the source material.

This would introduce him in a big bad way and I’d love to see Dave Bautista playing him if he gets cast. He could help to carve up the city and a similar situation happened in The War Of Jokes and Riddles and with all the aspects of the finale playing out the way that they did I think that they might end up mixing the two.

As we saw from The Batman, Reeves likes to pick and choose certain elements from graphic novels that span The Dark Knight’s rich history and there are some classics there.

Now an interesting aspect of the movie is that the Bruce Wayne persona is completely absent and even when he appears at events he seems completely checked out like you probably are because my voice…is soooo…boring.

But listen up you chump because there’s a major way that this could factor into the future of the franchise.

The Batman needs Bruce

During No Man’s Land, Bruce actually travelled out to a hearing in order to try and argue that Gotham was worthy of aide. Bruce is berated in the movie for not really being a philanthropist by Bella Real and potentially the two could end up going to the government to beg for help. This would mean that Bruce would need to develop this persona and it would show him that being a Wayne can do things that being the Batman can’t.

That was a big point of contention in the film between Bruce and Alfred and if we look at the books Zero Year and Earth One, the British butler had to convince him to lean into being Bruce because it also had its benefits.

Batman is a guy in a cape and he can’t exactly help with things like flooding so I believe that Bruce developing this will be an important moment for the character.

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Future Villain Theories

Now alongside The Joker and Riddler, we have several other supervillains that could be popping up. Due to Falcone’s death, there is gonna be a big seize for power and we know that The Penguin will be vying for this. Matt Reeves has stated that the HBO Max show starring him is closer to production than the GCPD one and I would love to see the series chronicle his time with Maroni through the use of flashbacks.

On the flip side of this, we could also watch as he expands his club and drug empire as the people of Gotham are probably gonna need something to take their minds off all the emotions that will be flooding in.

Now Reeves has also stated that he wants Mr Freeze in the franchise at some point.

Matt Freeevez has…f**ks sake…has a lot of things to pick from and I believe that the Heart Of Ice episode will be what he pulls from. This Emmy Award-winning entry of The Batman Animated Series humanised him and I think the landscape of Gotham now is the perfect place to have him enter. Gotham is completely flooded and if elements of this were to be frozen it could turn the entire city into a giant ice rink.

Now Freeze was given the cold shoulder after Batman and Robin but I think the Arkham Games somewhat revice-talised his public perception and showed general audiences that he’s naughty but ice.

What’s at the centre of the character is the need to save his Wife Nora and they may reveal that she was badly injured during the flooding, possibly even having drowned. Freeze could have cryogenically frozen her and be looking for a way to change the water within her lungs which is why he experiments with freezing.

Terrible terrible plot idea there from me that wouldn’t really fit this world but I think, you know, they could do things along those lines.

Now Freeze popping up could be teased at in the upcoming GCPD series and it would be the perfect way to break the ice. This will likely be based upon the phenomenal graphic novel series Gotham Central which had a Mr Freeze centric story in it.

The police could end up attempting to stop him and then after they lose we could watch as the Batman realises he’s a much bigger threat and he’ll then use his licence to chill to go kick his ice.

Pfffft.

A New Joker in Town?

Now the last part of the video is where I wanna discuss what I think Matt Reeve’s Joker will be like.

The director is clearly pulling major aspects from the NEW 52 Run and in that Scott Snyder introduced a version that ended up cutting his face off and wearing it as a mask. The Joker in this universe looks severely scarred and burned and he could end up disfiguring himself. To me, it’s the most terrifying version of the clown prince of crime and I can see it fitting this universe even though the two Warner Brothers do wanna keep it PG-13.

In that run, the Joker very much was painted out as being in love with Batman as an idea.

He saw himself as a Jester to the King of Gotham and ended up capturing all his allies in The Death Of The Family.

The whole run by Scott Snyder is outstanding and there are some amazing Joker stories in there such as one called Endgame which I definitely recommend you pick up.

Now as for Catwoman I think that she will probably be getting her own show and this would make for the perfect thing to have on HBO Max. Reeves has said the movie is based heavily on The Long Halloween and in that Catwoman actually leaves at one point to go to Europe.

In the book When In Rome we followed her adventures and I think Bludhaven could be a similar sort of situation.  She could really make a name for herself, become the Catwoman and then come back for a sequel.

Will We Be Getting A New Robin?

Now speaking of Long Halloween, its sequel Dark Victory introduced Robin and there were actually a couple of candidates in the movie I think would make for a great one. There’s of course the Mayor’s son and early on there is a lot of focus on him. At the start of the movie we see him in a ninja outfit, training with a sword and he of course has the qualifications of having a dead parent to make him a Robin. Like Bruce, he’s been through a lot of pain and trauma at a young age and in the same way that Bruce watched his parents die in front of him, we learn that the boy was the one who discovered his dad.

He really needs a father figure in his life and I think that Bruce could definitely provide this.

Now going beyond that there was also the kid at the train station.

He had half a mask showing he was half into this lifestyle and he could end up becoming a Jason Todd type character who also started off as somewhat of a criminal. In the comics, Jason was introduced as basically a Dick Grayson clone but this was later retconned to distinguish him from Dick.

He stole the tyres off the Batmobile and Batman ended up taking him under his wing.

This could also set up a red hood story which so far hasn’t been touched upon in a batman film.

I think this kid at the train station would be the perfect character to do that with as there are a lot of avenues for the future that they could go with him and there was a lot of focus given to his introduction. Reeves might have been sewing the seeds for a robin under our very eyes and I’d love to see one of them become a robin at some point in the future.

There are so many ways they can take things and all in all there’s so much to look forward to in the future.