
Days after Warner Bros. Indonesia debuted a new clip from The Batman, the studio’s India division unveiled a brand new poster for the upcoming superhero film. Featuring a visual palette that is totally distinct from what we’ve already seen in the marketing material—most of it was dominated by reds and blacks—the new poster showcases multiple characters against a fiery backdrop.
The film’s trailers have been hinting at a large-scale sequence involving flames raging through the streets of Gotham City, including a memorable shot of the Batmobile emerging from behind a fire, as Batman (Robert Pattinson) tails the Penguin (Colin Farrell), which looks to be the same sequence teased in the new poster. The Dark Knight’s face is front-and-center on the poster, flanked on either side by Paul Dano’s Riddler and Zoë Kravitz’s Catwoman — and sporting an almost comically villainous expression between them is The Penguin. The tagline, “unmask the truth”, is written in red letters at the top of the poster, while Bruce Wayne occupies the bottom half, beneath the floating heads. Behind him is the Batmobile, surrounded by a raging fire that blends into the Gotham City skyline. Also prominent on the poster is one of the Riddler’s mysterious symbols, with which the villain taunts Bruce.
Director Matt Reeves has cited many influences for the film, but among the most recognizable—at least as far as the Riddler is concerned—is the real-life Zodiac Killer, who terrorized San Francisco in the ‘60s in a series of murders that remain unsolved. Reeves has described the film as a detective story, and in a recent interview with Esquire, also revealed that tonally, he drew from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and other ‘70s classics such as The French Connection and Chinatown.
Previously, he’d said that Pattinson’s version of Bruce Wayne was inspired by Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, which told a fictionalized account of a Kurt Cobain-like rock star’s final days. Nirvana’s “Something’s in The Way” has been used prominently in the film’s promotional material, and Reeves told Empire that he’d listen to the song while writing the script.
The Batman also stars John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, and Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth. The film will arrive in theaters on March 4, followed by a streaming release on HBO Max 45 days later, in accordance with W.B.’s shortened theatrical release strategy. Check out the new poster below:
via Collider

