DC just made a tremendous Batman casting opportunity reality – though it won’t be one audiences will glimpse in any currently announced movie or show release. With the upcoming DC Universe release slate offering a chance to start anew for DC in many ways, it’s clear the coming years will be awash with new castings and fresh faces appearing in many of the franchise’s most iconic roles. Naturally, this has lead to more conversations around fan casting hopes than ever, especially since David Corenswet was a major fancast before he joined the ranks of DC’s official live-action Superman actors.
With Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner being officially cast – as well as DCU’s Superman, Supergirl, Krypto, and many more alongside them – there’s been a lot of high-profile updates regarding this aspect of DC’s current media landscape. However, one of the most interesting DC casting choices has received comparatively far less attention – and while this does make sense when looking at the big picture, it’s also something I know will linger in my mind for years to come, if only because it highlights a uniquely perfect casting that I’m devastated hasn’t been capitalized on by a movie.
DC Just Cast Elijah Wood In The Perfect Batman Villain Role – But Not For A Movie Or Show
Elijah Wood Has Now Appeared As A Famous Batman Villain
Elijah Wood has joined the expanded DC franchise for a performance as Scarecrow, but it won’t be coming in any of the upcoming shows or movies on the franchise’s horizon. Instead, the actor will be playing the supervillain role in the Batman: Arkham Shadow VR game, which serves as another installment in the Arkham series and follows on from Batman: Arkham Origins, exploring more about the younger years of this iteration of the Dark Knight as he tries to hunt down the elusive Rat King and discover the character’s real identity.
While this is still an exciting premise, it’s worth noting that Elijah Wood’s Scarecrow performance is mainly shown via mocap adapted into Arkham’s Jonathan Crane model and art style, which does serve to limit how much he can be actively seen in the role outside of voice acting. As such, while this is a promising setup still, it’s one that has also underlined the potential of a dream movie casting that may never come to fruition.
Elijah Wood’s Scarecrow Casting Would’ve Been Perfect For A Batman Movie
Making Elijah Wood Scarecrow Would Be A Perfect Movie Casting Choice
The decision to cast Elijah Wood as Scarecrow is a truly inspired one, and one that plays well into the actor’s range and history. While Elijah Wood is most predominately associated with his role as Frodo in The Lord Of The Rings series, he has also played a considerable range of horror roles, with his first being in 1993’s The Good Son while only 12 years old, and his most recent being in 2019’s Color Out Of Space, which immediately highlights the potential of casting him as the fear toxin obsessed Crane.
It’s also worth noting that Wood has appeared in a range of superhero releases and comic adaptations as well. This history includes Archenemy, 2023’s The Toxic Avenger, and perhaps most notably 2005’s Sin City, which saw him play the unhinged cannibal serial killer Kevin, who provides a powerful example of the potential of the Scarecrow casting, since the actor is able to make the character profoundly unsettling without needing dialogue or much in the way of screen time in order to do so.
Similarly, the footage of Elijah Wood performing in a motion capture suit as Crane in Arkham Shadow highlights how clever the game’s casting choice is. The actor’s ability to make a calm and quiet tone disconcerting is on full display here, as is his capacity for making a character who needs it feel uncanny in the best and worst possible way.
All this shows just how perfect Elijah Wood would be for a live-action Batman movie Scarecrow. This is particularly true since a film appearance would allow Wood’s performance to be more directly prominent, rather than being translated in a way that risks losing some of the physicality and mannerisms on display – and because a movie could focus on Crane’s story more, whereas the Arkham game needs to also focus on providing players entertaining fight sequences for them to play versus being solely story focused.
However, the prospect of this becoming reality may now be less likely, as it’s not clear whether DC would currently be willing to bring on an actor into the live-action sphere after they initially appeared in the games. While Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin all appeared in Batman releases outside of the Arkham series, this is because they’d all already played their respective characters for years beforehand, and thus already had positions as cornerstones of the overarching franchise, making the possibility uncertain for other actors.
Batman: Arkham Shadow Proves Elijah Wood Would Be Perfect For The DC Universe
Elijah Wood’s Talents Work For The DCU’s Animation & Live-Action Promises
As per James Gunn’s own confirmation, the DC Universe will be keeping the same actors for animated and live-action releases in its core world, allowing for cohesiveness with its projects, and ensuring audiences can know what releases are in the main universe and what is in the Elseworld universes as easily as possible. Batman: Arkham Shadow underlines Elijah Wood’s voice acting talents – which are also evidenced in other games like Psychonauts 2, and animated releases like Over The Garden Wall – reinforcing his DCU potential when it comes to this matter.
With all this said, casting such a talented and prolific performer is a move that would pay off in any format, and this is handily proven by Batman: Arkham Shadow and its depiction of one of Batman’s most interesting and iconic supervillains. Hopefully, this rendition will be alongside other depictions of Scarecrow that are looked at when it comes time to bring the next version of Crane to the big or small screen, meaning whatever happens, a part of this version of the villain could be glimpsed in DC‘s future.
DC Universe
The DC Universe is one of the biggest comic book franchises and often competes with Marvel. DC Comics started as National Allied Publications, founded by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1935. Since then, the franchise has exploded with thousands of comic books, movies, TV shows, and video games. 2013 marked the beginning of the most recent iteration of the superheroes, with Zack Snyder introducing Henry Cavill as Superman. After several movies with mixed reviews, DC underwent a soft reboot under the helm of James Gunn and Peter Safran.
