John Oliver Says Natasha Lyonne Should Be Cast As The Next Batman, Though She’d Rather Play One Of The Villains

Comic book movies are in a rough patch these days. Once a sure bet, they’re now like to underperform if not outright bomb. As it happens, there’s already a major makeover afoot over at the DCEU, who brought in James Gunn — director of the only superhero smash of 2023 — to bring us things like a new, less brooding Superman. While he’s at it, maybe he needs another new Batman (apart from the one already played by Robert Pattinson, of course). If so, John Oliver has a suggestion.

On Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, the HBO host unloaded on Donald Trump’s claim that former president’s need to have total immunity. The Supreme Court recently agreed to take up his claim, answering the question of whether ex-commanders-in-chief should be prosecuted if they commit crimes. Oliver thinks there’s already a clear answer: “Yes.”

To drive his point home, he laid out some other questions with obvious answers: “Did Robert Durst kill those people? Or Which cereal mascot f***s the most? Or who should play the next Batman? And for the record, the answers are, absolutely, it’s not even close [Tony the tiger], and Natasha Lyonne.”

Eventually Lyonne herself caught wind of Oliver’s pitch, to which she agreed, sort of, writing, “we all know I should be playing the Penguin but I’ll handle Batman if that’s what Gotham needs.”

Lyonne also enthusiastically responded to someone who said she should play a female Riddler instead.

The actress and filmmaker also dug up an old joke tweet from 2022 in which she wrote, “Excited to announce I play Batman in the new Batman film.”

So how about it, James Gunn and fellow DCEU honcho Peter Safran? Maybe there should be two Batmans: one incredibly serious, starring Pattinson, and one a little goofier, with Lyonne as either the Caped Crusader or a villain, much the way the ’60s TV version cast hams like Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Eartha Kitt, and Otto Preminger to play the baddies.

You can watch the latest Last Week Tonight over at Max.

(Via Deadline)