Scarlett Johansson’s mystery role in The Batman: Part II may finally have a name, and it’s not Gilda Dent.
A new rumor out of the production claims Johansson is the sequel’s main villain: a serial killer obsessed with plants who murders her victims with toxins.
That’s Poison Ivy. A grounded, Matt Reeves-style Poison Ivy, but Poison Ivy.
What The New Rumor Says
The claim spread on X and originated on the DCULeaks subreddit from a user who says the information comes from the set of The Batman: Part II.
According to the post, Johansson is playing the film’s central villain, described as a serial killer with an obsession with plants who uses toxins to carry out her crimes, targeting Gotham’s elite.
Her main target? Charles Dance’s character, described as the leader of a secret organization made up of the most powerful figures in the city. That’s the Court of Owls in everything but name.
The post also backs up Jeff Sneider’s recent bombshell that Sebastian Stan is playing Victor Zsasz, not Harvey Dent.
Worth noting on sourcing: the DCULeaks mods approved the post, and per accounts circulating on X, the user provided proof to the mod team before posting. The poster also admits codenames were used on set, so parts of the post are their own read of what they saw and heard.
File it as a rumor, but a rumor with more paperwork behind it than most.
Nexus Point News Said Poison Ivy From Day One
Here’s the detail everyone memory-holed.
When Nexus Point News first broke that Johansson was in talks for The Batman: Part II, their report listed the characters she could be playing: Andrea Beaumont/The Phantasm, Vicki Vale, Julie Madison — and Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy.
Once the trades confirmed the casting and settled on the Gilda Dent narrative, the Ivy option was forgotten within a week.
If this set leak is accurate, NPN had it in their original report the whole time.
We’ve Been Saying Her Role Was Bigger Than “The Wife”
This also tracks with what we’ve been reporting for months.
Back in December, we questioned whether Johansson was really just playing Harvey Dent’s wife, and in January, we floated that her role could be far bigger and darker than the trades let on, possibly even the sequel’s real villain.
The specific character may be different, but the instinct was right: you don’t pay Scarlett Johansson to stand next to the DA.
Then came the Stan saga. His “many roles” comment had everyone — us included — treating Stan-as-Two-Face as a done deal, until Sneider’s report that Stan is actually Zsasz, with Brian Tyree Henry as Harvey Dent and the Court of Owls pulling Gotham’s strings.
Remember what Sneider’s sources said in that same report: Johansson and Dance “aren’t playing big names” but rather a “meld” of different characters, with their roles kept quiet because revealing them would give too much away.
A de-powered serial killer who happens to be obsessed with plants and poisons is exactly that kind of meld — part Pamela Isley, part original Reeves creation.
And recall Reeves has said the sequel’s villain is one that hasn’t been done before. A serious live-action Poison Ivy never has.
The Poison Ivy Series Suddenly Makes More Sense
There’s one more piece that snaps into place.
Just last month, Sneider reported that DC might have a live-action Poison Ivy series in the works, with the open question being which universe gets her: James Gunn’s DCU or Reeves’ Batman Epic Crime Saga.
Sneider’s hangup at the time was that Poison Ivy is “on the goofier side” and wouldn’t work as a movie. A grounded, toxin-wielding serial killer introduced in The Batman: Part II answers that objection completely and hands the ReevesVerse a ready-made spinoff lead at the exact moment The Penguin Season 2 is reportedly dead.
The Penguin even planted the seed: Sofia Falcone’s mushroom-derived Bliss drug already had fans theorizing about a Pamela Isley connection in this universe.
What’s Confirmed vs. What’s Rumor
Confirmed: Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, Sebastian Stan, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, and Charles Dance are in the film, and cameras are rolling at Warner Bros. Leavesden.
Rumor: everything about who’s playing whom — Johansson as Ivy, Stan as Zsasz, Henry as Dent, Dance as the Court of Owls — plus a possible return of Barry Keoghan’s Joker.
If the leak holds, Johansson would be the first live-action Poison Ivy since Uma Thurman in 1997’s Batman & Robin, and the first take on the character played straight. Add Zsasz’s big-screen debut and a Court of Owls conspiracy, and the villain roster for this thing is starting to look stacked.
Matt Reeves directs The Batman: Part II from a script he co-wrote with Mattson Tomlin. It hits theaters October 1, 2027.
