A new Catwoman is ready to prowl.
A new featurette for the upcoming Robert Pattinson The Batman movie showcases Zoe Kravitz’s Selina Kyle and how she’ll make an impact as the next Catwoman.
The Anti-Hero
One constant of Catwoman in any incarnation is that she’s been less of a villain and more morally grey.
Unlike most Batman villains, Selina Kyle is quite sane and doesn’t want to play some twisted games with the Dark Knight. She just wants to get the loot and get away to enjoy it.
The love-hate affair between the pair has been subject to scores of stories from the campy 1960s series with Adam West and Julie Newmar to the recent comics where the pair almost married.
On screen, Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway have played Selina, each emphasizing her beauty and skills while enjoying her larceny.
They have revealed little of Selina in The Batman movie, but a new featurette shows Kravitz in the role, emphasizing that this is before Selina actually becomes Catwoman.
The Catwoman Cometh
The snippet comes from Catwoman: The Feline Femme Fatale, a mini-documentary that plays on iTunes along with any of the first four Batman movies.
The footage of Selina is brief, showing her riding a motorcycle, standing inside a crypt, and in a makeshift cat burglar outfit breaking into an office.
Director Matt Reeves briefly spoke about what he hopes to see with Selina.
“The villains are often some of the most, if not the most exciting part of the movies. I mean, the rogues gallery is incredible, and what I wanted to do was I wanted to see a Batman that wasn’t an origin tale, but was sort of in his early days, but that meant that a lot of the characters that are the rogues gallery of characters, are in their origins in a way. So we have a Selina Kyle who’s not yet Catwoman.”
Producer Dylan Clark added, “What’s really interesting about Selina Kyle is that she represents the savior for the ill-treated, the forgotten, the people that haven’t had anybody looking out for them. She’s also very complicated, you don’t quite know exactly where her loyalty or allegiance lies.”
Kravitz herself said her character is a fighter, adding, “Selina can take care of herself, she’s incredibly tough. She really wants to fight for those who don’t have someone to fight for them. And I think that is where Batman and she connect.”
The Batman takes place when Bruce Wayne (Pattinson) is still early in his career, tracking a murderous serial killer called the Riddler (Paul Dano) while handling the Penguin (Colin Farrell). Jeffrey Wright plays Commissioner Jim Gordon.
It’s reported the movie takes place not in the regular DCEU but the alternate Earth-2, free from the continuity of the Ben Affleck Batman movies.
This featurette is the first look at Kravitz in character and how this Catwoman will have a tougher attitude than her predecessors.
The Batman debuts in theaters on March 4, 2022.