Chris Nolan Was Always Right About The Long Halloween
Christopher Nolan wrote the forward for one of DC's trade paperbacks of The Long Halloween alongside David S. Goyer. In it, Nolan confirms that "The Long Halloween is more than a comic book. It's an epic tragedy." Nolan and Goyer then go on in the forward to describe just how much they were both influenced by this key Batman story, particularly the triumvirate of justice that was Batman, Jim Gordon, and Harvey Dent as they sought to fight back against Gotham's seemingly insurmountable corruption.
The Long Halloween is far more than Harvey Dent's tragic origins and dark transformation into the villain Two-Face. It also showcases how Gotham began to change over an entire year as members of the Falcone and Maroni crime families were murdered by the mysterious Holiday Killer/s, including both heads Carmine Falcone and Salvatore Maroni. With both families having turned on each other during the killings, Gotham begins evolving, deviating from organized crime alone as more super-criminals and "freaks" begin permeating and chaotically disrupting the traditional flow of Gotham's underworld.
The Penguin Makes A Long Halloween Adaptation Possible
At the end of The Batman, the implication is made that Carmine's death at the hands of Riddler created a major power vacuum, one Oswald "Oz" Cobblepott intends to fill. This idea aligns with the comics where Penguin took over the majority of organized crime in Gotham following the deaths of Falcone and Maroni, having the ability to navigate both the old world of Gotham's traditional corruption and the new with the emergence of Gotham's classic rogues and "freaks". Now, the upcoming Penguin series coming to Max could help introduce and establish more characters and arcs from The Long Halloween.
Seeking to claim a bigger piece of the pie, it looks as though Penguin will have to contend with both The Batman universe's Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) and the rest of the Falcone Crime Family, most notably Carmine's children, Sofia (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto. Alberto (Michael Zegen) is a particularly noteworthy addition to the cast of The Penguin, seeing how he was one of the Holiday Killers in The Long Halloween (the one who killed Maroni). The Penguin series will also debut members of the crime families who were Holiday Killer victims in the comics, such as Johnny Vitti and Milos Grapa.
Please DC, Make The Batman 2 The Long Halloween
The overall tone of Gotham that was created in the first movie lends itself quite well to depict the epic tragedy of corruption and evolution that is The Long Halloween. Additionally, Robert Pattinson's Batman has already proven himself to be the right kind of early Caped Crusader to make a version of Long Halloween work. While gifted at detective work, Pattinson's Batman is still refining his crusade and how to protect Gotham City using the best methods possible in the face of its often overwhelming levels of corruption and evolving status quo.
With any luck, The Penguin series will help set the stage for Matt Reeves to create his very own full-fledged adaptation of The Long Halloween. The basic framework is there, and several more key characters will have made their debut in this version of Gotham by the end of the upcoming HBO series. At any rate, it should be very exciting to see how The Penguin will set up the next chapter in Matt Reeves's Batman trilogy, especially considering all these elements which are strongly pointing to some kind of Long Halloween adaptation.
