The Batman starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz is the comic’s newest movie adaptation. The superhero film, directed by Matt Reeves, is out in US and UK cinemas on 4 March, and is expected to become the second film to surpass $100m (£74.5m) in its opening weekend since the start of the pandemic.
Kravitz plays Catwoman, also known as Selina Kyle, in the live-action adaptation. While actresses such as Michelle Pfieffer, Halle Berry, and Anne Hathaway have all had their go at the character, Kravitz’s rendition will be different from those before her. In an interview with Australia’s Pedestrian, Kravitz revealed that she interpreted Catwoman as bisexual.
The subtle nod to Catwoman’s sexuality takes place during one scene when Kyle enters her apartment in search of her friend Anika. Kyle calls Anika her “baby,” seemingly implying that their relationship is more than platonic.
When asked whether this scene implies that Catwoman is bisexual, Kravitz answered, “That’s definitely the way I interpreted that, that they had some kind of romantic relationship.”
She then said “I agree” after the interviewer expressed their excitement to finally see Catwoman portrayed as a bisexual woman in the cinematic universe.
The Batman director Reeves also weighed in on the topic of Catwoman’s sexuality. “[The film is] very true to the character of Selina Kyle,” he said. “She’s not yet Catwoman, but all the elements of how she’s going to become Catwoman are there.”
Reeves gave more insight into the relationship between the characters Kyle and Anika. “And in terms of her relationship with Anika, I spoke to Zoë very early on and one of the things she said which I loved was that: ‘She’s drawn to strays because she was a stray and so she really wants to care for these strays because she doesn’t want to be that way anymore and Anika is like a stray and she loves her. She actually represents this connection that she has to her mother who she lost, who was a stray anymore’.”
The director added, “So I don’t think we meant to go directly in that way, but you can interpret it that way for sure. She has an intimacy with that character and it’s a tremendous and deep caring for that character, more so than a sexual thing, but there was meant to be quite an intimate relationship between them.”
The Batman is Warner Bros’ first exclusively theatrical release in over a year, after its entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously debuted on the US streaming service HBO Max. It was recently announced that Warner Bros have cancelled the planned release of The Batman in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
