Director Matt Reeves’ The Batman is doing well at the global box office, closing in on the $500 million mark, and sequel discussions are happening at Warner Bros. We’ve already heard some suggestions for what we might see in a follow-up: the Court of Owls, a grounded Mr. Freeze, Robin the Boy Wonder. Now Nicolas Cage has made a very enticing suggestion: he believes he should be the villain in the sequel, and he wants to play Egghead.
Created for the 1966 Batman TV series, Egghead was played by genre icon Vincent Price. As Wikipedia explains, “the character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believes himself to be “the world’s smartest criminal”, and his crimes usually have an egg motif to them; he also includes egg-related puns in his speech (“egg-zactly”, “egg-cellent”, etc.). Additionally, he would use a wide assortment of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs (laid by chickens on a diet of onions).”
While at the SXSW film festival, where his new film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was screened, Cage was asked, “Is there any role you have not played that you want to play?” His first answer was Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Then he said,
I like… oh, here’s something. I’ve been thinking about this, because we have this new, Robert Pattinson as the Batman, which I’m excited to see it, I haven’t seen it yet, but I think he would be terrific. The villain that Vincent Price played on the ’60s show, Egghead. I think I want to have a go at Egghead. I think I could make him absolutely terrifying. And I have a concept for Egghead. So let them know over at Warner Bros. I’m down for Egghead.”
You can see Cage putting his desire to play Egghead out into the world in the video embedded below.
Scripted by Reeves and Peter Craig, The Batman has the following synopsis:
The Batman is an edgy, action-packed thriller that depicts Batman in his early years, struggling to balance rage with righteousness as he investigates a disturbing mystery that has terrorized Gotham. Robert Pattinson delivers a raw, intense portrayal of Batman as a disillusioned, desperate vigilante awakened by the realization that the anger consuming him makes him no better than the ruthless serial killer he’s hunting.
In addition to Pattinson as Bruce Wayne / Batman, the film stars Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as Lt. James Gordon, Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle / Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone, Paul Dano as Edward Nashton / The Riddler, Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson, and Jayme Lawson as mayoral candidate Bella Reál.
Reeves produced The Batman with Dylan Clark. Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, Chantal Nong Vo, and Simon Emanuel serve as executive producers. If you can’t make it out to see the film on the big screen, it’s also coming to HBO Max on April 19th.