The Batman: How Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman Can Beat Michelle Pfeiffer's

Zoe Kravitz is set to play the morally questionable cat burglar in Matt Reeves' upcoming DC Comics reboot The Batman, but what exactly will it take for her depiction to overtake Michelle Pfeiffer's beloved incarnation of Catwoman? There's already an unquantifiable level of hype surrounding the newest cinematic interpretation of Batman, especially since Matt Reeves and the creative team have been as quiet as humanly possible regarding plot details. Outside of any specifics, fans can expect to see Batman forced to use his detective skills more than any other cinematic incarnation has thusfar, as well as a narrative that involves a multitude of villains such as Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobblepot and Paul Dano as The Riddler.

Another character who has been confirmed to appear in the movie is Catwoman, this time played by Zoe Kravitz from High Fidelity and Mad Max: Fury Road. Batman and his relationship with on-again/off-again jewel thief Selina Kyle has been a core part of the character's mythos, both on-screen and on the page. Most recently, the two characters were set to marry in Tom King's four year run on Batman, but unfortunately, certain events made sure their union never came to fruition. While it's unlikely that we'll see a potential marriage between Batman and Catwoman in the upcoming film, there's still over 50 years of history between the characters that could form the basis of their relationship in the movie.

Catwoman has appeared on-screen in almost every major incarnation of the Batman franchise, and even in her own spin-off. Each of these interpretations brings something unique to the role, though arguably the most popular cinematic version of the character has been Michelle Pfeiffer's leather-clad specter from Batman Returns. With Kravitz introducing the world to yet another version of Catwoman next year, there's a chance that she could be the actress to finally dethrone Pfeiffer's iconic performance.

Michelle Pfeiffer Is The Best Movie Version Of Catwoman

Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman in Batman Returns

Tim Burton's Batman movies have never resigned themselves to trying to be as comic book accurate as possible. In his universe, The Joker is the crook who killed the Waynes and Oswald Cobblepot is a man with penguin-like birth defects; these changes serve to embellish traditional Batman tropes with Burton's signature style, and arguably make the movies more recognizable because of it. So when Batman Returns was released in 1992 and Catwoman was reimagined as a meek secretary who was killed and resurrected as a vengeance-seeking wraith with a subtle S&M fetish, any complaints about the serious changes to Catwoman's origins were hushed by Michelle Pfeiffer's inspired performance.

Even though her origins and costume are a far cry from the Catwoman that fans recognize from the comics, Michelle Pfeiffer has a deep understanding of the character and her relationship with Bruce Wayne. Her performance is filled with the playful malice that Catwoman exudes when dealing with her enemies in the comics, and the movie takes careful steps to showcase the shaky moral footing that she finds herself on. Her dry wit and frequent cat puns, while corny, also showcase the sarcastic outlook she has on the world once she's committed to becoming a "villain." However, the biggest thing that Batman Returns and Michelle Pfeiffer do well is to portray the star-crossed nature of Bruce and Selina's relationship. The presence of Bruce Wayne and Selina's eventual realization that he is Batman causes her to reevaluate her priorities and her concepts of good and evil. Batman makes Catwoman want to do good, and underneath her sensual and cunning personality, Pfeiffer displays Selina's yearning for a normal life and her desire to be a truly good person.

Why Subsequent Movie Versions Haven't Been As Good

Michelle Pfeiffer's interpretation of Catwoman proved to be so popular that after the movie was released, studios desperately wanted to give the character her own spinoff. However, despite both Tim Burton and Michelle Pfeiffer being interested initially, the timing was wrong, Burton lost his enthusiasm and it eventually led to Warner Bros. severing the movie's connective tissue with Batman Returns and turning it into its own property. Catwoman was eventually released in 2004 and starred Halle Berry as Patience Phillips, a Selina Kyle stand-in that shared nothing in common with the established character. Not only did the replacement of Selina Kyle enrage comic book fans, but the movie itself was a box office bomb and was destroyed by critics and audiences alike.

The next time Catwoman showed up on movie screens was in 2012 with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Anne Hathaway's version of the character is arguably the most congruent with comic book depictions of Catwoman as a high-tech burglar, even including a version Selina's trusted accomplice Holly Robinson. To the movie's credit, this version of Catwoman works well within the universe that Nolan has established, and Hathaway definitely has fun bringing Selina's cunning wit and intellect to life. Still, it doesn't exactly reach the soaring heights of Pfeiffer's interpretation of the character, mostly because the movie spends so much time setting up the rivalry between Bane (Tom Hardy) and Batman (Christian Bale) that it doesn't allow for the relationship between Selina and Bruce to truly flourish.

How Zoe Kravitz Catwoman Can Top Michelle Pfeiffer's

Even though there hasn't been much released in the way of character details regarding Zoe Kravitz's version of Catwoman, the actress has been open about her excitement for the role as well as some of the places she's turning to for inspiration, one of which being Michelle Pfeiffer's performance. It's obvious that both Kravitz and Matt Reeves want this version of Catwoman to be distinct from all the other actresses who have played her, so Zoe Kravitz studying her predecessors allows for her to adopt certain traits from each of them without fully modeling her performance on them. This specifically includes the flirtatious allure that Pfeiffer's performance had in spades, as a big part of Catwoman's character is using her wit and her sensuality to lead powerful men into underestimating her.

For Kravitz to truly embody Catwoman and surpass Michelle Pfeiffer's version of the character, she'll have to amalgamate the best parts of Pfeiffer's cinematic approach along with the character's comic book roots. In Year One, (another well of inspiration for Kravitz) Catwoman is a prostitute who's inspired to don a costume and protect her working girls by the actions of Batman. While Reeves may not want to use this exact origin for the character, the film could still borrow aspects from the comic, particularly Selina's desire to take care of Gotham's working girls and the less advantaged women in the city. Not only would this bring her more in line with the character's comic book traits, but it would infuse her arc in the movie with a message of female solidarity and compassion that would allow the audience to empathize more with her criminal actions.

Another element of Selina Kyle's comic book backstory that hasn't been touched on yet is her mafia parentage. In the storyline Catwoman: When In Rome, it's heavily implied that Selina's father is Carmine Falcone, a character who is being played by John Turturro in The Batman. This is an element of Catwoman's backstory that would give Zoe's performance a moral nuance that has been lacking from other depictions of the thief, allowing both actress and director a chance to play around with Selina's shaky conscience. Whether or not The Batman's version of Catwoman will top Michelle Pfeiffer's remains to be seen; however, one thing that's certain is that Matt Reeves and Zoe Kravitz are prepared to give fans a version of the character that's wholly unique and refreshing from any that we've seen before.

More: Every Actress Who Has Played Catwoman In A DC Movie