Zack Snyder reveals the Batman villains he had plans for in the DCEU

Ben Affleck as Batman in Zack Snyder's Justice League — (Image credit: Warner Bros./HBO Max)

Despite having left the DCEU behind after Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Snyder has opened up about which villains could have appeared in future installments of the franchise, including alongside Ben Affleck’s Batman.

In an interview with BroBible (H/T ComicBook.com), Snyder said: "Obviously Catwoman is someone we talked about, and we had a Riddler concept that we talked about. Remember, the Riddler was kind of like the one who figured out the Anti-Life Equation on Earth in the spec scripts."

Penguin was also a villain Snyder once discussed at an early stage. "I think that's a great character, and I'd love to see a version of Penguin that has an inherent camp to it," Snyder said. "It'd be awesome to see how you could deconstruct it and make him into something crazy."

Coincidentally, each of the villains Snyder mentioned is set to appear in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Paul Dano’s take on Riddler appears to be far more inspired by the likes of David Fincher’s Zodiac, while Colin Farrell is almost unrecognizable in his Penguin prosthetics.

On the topic of Justice League’s future, Snyder exclusively told GamesRadar+ "Listen, I loved making all those DC movies, and I love superheroes, and I love the genre. I'm very excited to see Matt [Reeves]'s Batman movie [The Batman], so that's exciting. Something like that [though], I'm not sure."

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.