Of all the places for a "Batman" leak to come from, Heidi Klum's Halloween costume was not on my bingo card.
Back in June, I reported on Jeff Sneider's scoop that upended months of assumptions about "The Batman Part II": Sebastian Stan wasn't playing Harvey Dent after all, but serial killer Victor Zsasz, and Brian Tyree Henry was the one playing Dent/Two-Face. At the time, I noted the Henry casting was bound to rile up some fanboys. It's worth remembering that Billy Dee Williams played Dent in Tim Burton's "Batman," just never the Two-Face half of the character.
I love how many slammed Sneider’s reporting at the time, and absolutely swore by trade reporting that Stan might be playing Dent. That won’t age well.
Now we have Mike Marino, the prosthetics wizard who concocted Klum's recent Halloween costume and also did the makeup on "The Batman Part II." Fans went through a behind-the-scenes video he posted of Klum's 2026 costume and have spotted what appear to be props from ‘Part II’ in Marino's studio: a cast of what looks like Henry's face with a disfigured lip (that's Two-Face), a box labeled "Zsasz," and a box labeled "Owl 3."
The first two line up well with Sneider's report. The third confirms the Court of Owls would factor into the film. Created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo in 2011, the Court is a secret society of Gotham elites who have pulled the city's strings for centuries from behind owl masks — they are basically Illuminati in comic form.
That said, Henry as Harvey Dent/Two-Face? Oh boy. He wouldn't be the first Black actor to play Dent in a major live-action film. Williams appeared only briefly as the pre-Two-Face version of the character, and while he was originally meant to become Two-Face in the sequel, that version of the story never materialized.
I like Henry a lot, especially his memorable work as Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles in FX's "Atlanta," but Matt Reeves must have known that casting a Black actor as Two-Face would not be met with universal approval, which may be why he has kept who's playing whom in the sequel a mystery. I like the idea, but comic book purists will immediately point out that Two-Face has never been Black in the comics, despite Williams essentially playing him in pre-villain mode.
Regardless, the shoot is set to wrap in London with Steven Soderbergh during the first week of December. Reeves has said he isn't leaving the film and will handle post-production. "The Batman Part II" opens February 18, 2028, after its third date change.
Henry’s casting is bound to rile up some fanboys. It's worth remembering that Billy Dee Williams played Dent in Tim Burton's "Batman," just never the Two-Face half of the character.