Matt Reeves 'looking for woman of colour' to play Catwoman in 'The Batman'

The casting news for Matt Reeves’ The Batman is starting to heat up.

After reports that Jonah Hill was in talks to appear and Jeffrey Wright is signed on to play Commissioner Gordon, Variety’s Justin Kroll has said the filmmaker is looking for a woman of colour to play Catwoman.

Speaking on the My Mom’s Basement podcast, Kroll explained that he had known Reeves was looking for diverse casting for Gordon and the femme fatale and said the latter casting will be especially interesting.

"I think Catwoman will be a bigger deal given the names I've heard involved with that one,” the reporter said. “If I break that, that will get people intrigued.

“They are definitely going in a different direction with that role."

Catwoman, AKA Selina Kyle, has been played by several black actors already.

Eartha Kitt portrayed the character in the live-action Batman TV series in 1966, taking over the role from Julie Newmar for the third season.

Halle Berry was the next black actress to play her in the critically-panned 2004 Catwoman movie, followed by Zoe Kravitz voicing the character in 2017’s The Lego Batman movie.

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She was reportedly being lined up to play the live-action version but because of scheduling conflicts she reportedly had to pull out.

Anne Hathaway was the last person to play the role in a live-action film, in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises, the same film that allegedly passed on giving Kravitz a role because she was “urban.”

"In the last Batman movie [The Dark Knight Rises], they told me that I couldn't get an audition for a small role they were casting because they weren't 'going urban'," she told Nylon.

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"It was like, 'What does that have to do with anything?' I have to play the role like, 'Yo, what's up Batman? What's going on wit chu?'"

Michelle Pfieffer famously played the character in the 1992 movie Batman Returns and recently suggested that her Maleficent: Mistress of Evil co-star Elle Fanning would be great in the role.

The Batman is set for release on 25 June 2021