The Batman director Matt Reeves wants to take on Mr. Freeze. During a recent press event attended by IGN and a handful of other outlets, Reeves explained how he would approach the iconic Batman villain in a potential sequel.
“Mr. Freeze, that such a great story, right?” he said. “I think there’s actually a grounded version of that story, which could be really powerful and could be really great.”
“I just feel drawn to finding the grounded version of everything. So, to me it would be a challenge in an interesting way to try and figure out how that could happen.”
Mr. Freeze first appeared as the ice-based criminal Mr. Zero in a 1959 issue of the Batman comic book. But his origin story was later reworked to match that of the iconic episode of Batman: The Animated series.
Dr. Victor Fries was a cryogenic scientist based in Gotham who was caught in a lab mishap while trying to cure his terminally ill wife, Nora. It’s a beautifully tragic story, brought to life with creative artistry in the animated series.
The villain also appeared in the movies, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger… but we don’t talk about that.
“I love the fantastical side of Batman, but this iteration, obviously, while being, to me, I think it is very comics faithful, but I don’t think that this one is necessarily, it doesn’t lean as hard into the fantastical,” explained Reeves. “But I think to me what would be interesting would be to try and unwind the fantastical and see, well, how could that make sense here?”
I can’t help thinking that Mr. Freeze’s tragic love story would make a perfect tale in The Batman world. Along with Robert Pattinson’s ideas to explore the Court of Owls, it could well build towards an interesting take on the Gotham we know and love.
Robert Pattinson stars as The Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, and Paul Dano as The Riddler.
The Batman is directed by Matt Reeves, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Peter Craig.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
