Nicolas Cage Wants To Play An “Absolutely Terrifying” Surprise Villain In ‘The Batman’ Sequel

At this point, it’s laughable when an actor expresses a desire to appear in a hit comic book movie franchise.  I mean, D’UH no kidding!  You want to appear in a billion-dollar brand of films?  Who wouldn’t?!

But leave it to Nicolas Cage to twist this most bizarrely and amusingly way!

As of this past weekend, Matt Reeves‘ free-standing The Batman has made $238.5M domestically and $400M globally, and it was only in its second week. It is entirely possible this highly acclaimed murder-mystery spin on the Caped Crusader will join the billion-dollar club over the next month or so.

An Egg-Cellent Idea

So yeah. Surprise! An actor wants to be in a sequel. After all, this first flick had three “villains.” Paul Dano’s Riddler was the main antagonist, while Colin Farrell’s “Oz” (a.k.a. The Penguin) made an appearance, setting him up for his own HBO Max series that will further his story. Zoë Kravitz portrays a version of Catwoman, although she, like The Penguin, was never referred to by her codename and she wasn’t really a villain.

So there is room for multiple rogues in the sure-to-come follow-up. Similar to Farrell’s Penguin series, HBO Max and Reeves are developing a program that revolves around Arkham Asylum, where the worst of Gotham’s criminals go to be “rehabilitated.”  (It never works.)  So there could be many openings for actors to play Bat-foes.

Cage is a MASSIVE comic book fanatic.  At one point, he paid $1M for a copy of Action Comics #1, the first appearance of the first superhero, Superman.  He NAMED HIS KID Kal-El, Superman’s Kryptonian name. AND he infamously was tapped to play the Man of Steel himself in Superman Lives, a reboot that made it pretty far into development in the ’90s — Cage even did costume tests for the weird suits of armor he was expected to wear in the film. (There’s a whole documentary — and it’s fascinating — called The Death of “Superman Lives”: What Happened?. Look it up! It’s well worth the watch!)

Well, now the eccentric actor has thrown his name into the ring to appear in a sequel to The Batman and he wants to play a specific role. And that role is… unusual. He wants to play Egghead!

While promoting The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which is premiering at the SXSW festival, Cage revealed in an interview with Fox 7 Austin that he had an idea for an “absolutely terrifying” version of the character. Although, he admits to not having seen The Batman.

The Egg-centric History of Egghead

Egghead was not a character that originated in comic books. Back in the 1960s, it was just as desirable for actors to appear in the hot comic book adaptation of the time  — Batman, the live-action TV show that starred Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo. Many classic actors wanted to appear that producers had to make up some villainous characters to accommodate them.

Horror mainstay Vincent Price wanted a role, so they created Egghead, a brainy mastermind with a fetish for… well, eggs.  Price was outfitted with an elongated skull cap to make his head resemble the breakfast favorite.

Despite not being a comic-based rogue, Egghead proved popular on the program. He made three appearances. This iteration was known for making egg puns like “egg-cellent” and “egg-xactly.” In later episodes, he teamed up with another original character, Olga, Queen of the Cossacks, played by another popular actor of the time, Anne Baxter.

Due to the popularity of Batman, which aired in syndication for decades after it ended, Egghead has remained a favorite (or perhaps a guilty pleasure). He was introduced in the comic book Shadow of the Bat. He was also considered to be one of the villains in the Joel Schumacher cycle of movies. Egghead appeared in The LEGO Batman Movie and on the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

But can this character really exist in the gritty reality of Reeves’ The Batman? Reeves could probably figure out a way to make him work. I mean, his Riddler took the cackling, leotard-wearing character we all know and love and turned him into a twisted SAW-like serial killer. And he’s just scratched the surface of Penguin’s iceberg. He could probably figure out how to make this Condiment King work in this reality.

Then again, maybe Egghead would be better off in a James Gunn project. I mean, look at how great Polka-Dot Man worked in The Suicide Squad!

As for Cage, check him out playing a fictionalized version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent which opens on April 22, 2022. He is also attached to play a different creature of the night, Dracula, in Chris McKay’s horror-comedy Renfield which also stars Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina. That picture is now filming.

Do you want to see Nic Cage as Egghead in a Matt Reeves Batman project?