Zoe Kravitz has been picked to play Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, in director Matt Reeves’s upcoming The Batman.
The trades broke the news this afternoon, with reportage indicating the Big Little Lies star’s deal for the film has already been sealed. Kravitz previously voiced Catwoman in 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie.
Kravitz will be appearing opposite Robert Pattinson, who will be playing Bruce Wayne, the orphaned millionaire who grows up to be the scourge of Gotham City’s criminal element by becoming the masked vigilante Batman. The actress reportedly beat out contenders Ana de Armas, Ella Balinska and Eiza Gonzalez for the role. All four had screentested against Pattison earlier this month.
Also in the cast is Jeffrey Wright as Gotham City Police Commissioner Gordon and Jonah Hill in an unnamed – though mostly the Riddler – villain role.
Kravitz joins a long line of actresses who have played the slinky, femme fatale villainess in live action versions of the Batman comics. Michelle Pfieffer appeared as Catwoman in Tim Burton’s 1992 Batman Returns while Halle Berry took on the role for a 2004 solo film outing that did not do well with critics and audiences alike. Anne Hathaway took on the role for director Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in 2012.
On television, Julie Newmar first played Catwoman on the first two seasons of the campy 1960s Batman series, followed by Lee Meriwether who played the part in the spinoff film before Eartha Kitt came in to play Catwoman for the show’s last season. More recently, Camren Bicondova played Selena Kyle in the series Gotham.
