Charles Dance, the British actor who spent four seasons intimidating everyone in Westeros as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, is in talks to join The Batman: Part II as Christopher Dent — the father of Harvey Dent, Gotham’s district attorney who is widely expected to become Two-Face.
Sebastian Stan is set to play Harvey Dent, with Scarlett Johansson cast as Dent’s wife Gilda. Robert Pattinson returns as Batman, with director Matt Reeves co-writing the script alongside Mattson Tomlin. Production is targeting a spring start, with the film scheduled for release on October 1, 2027.
The role proved difficult to fill. Stellan Skarsgård reportedly passed on the part before Dance entered talks, with Deadline’s Justin Kroll clarifying on social media that he was the only actor he could confirm had definitively declined. The caliber of actors circling the role suggests Christopher Dent carries significant weight in the story — a character positioned to illuminate who Harvey Dent is and, by implication, who he becomes.
Dance’s most recent credit is Baron Leopold Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-nominated Frankenstein. His résumé also includes Alien 3, The Imitation Game, Gosford Park, The First Omen, and The Day of the Jackal — a body of work that skews heavily toward authority figures with menace behind their composure.
The original The Batman grossed $369.3 million domestically and $772 million worldwide, making it the first major post-Covid theatrical blockbuster for Warner Bros. The sequel has been a long time coming. Warner Bros. first announced the sequel at CinemaCon in April 2022, with an initial target of October 2025. That date slipped to October 2026 before being pushed again to its current 2027 release.
DC co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran are producing alongside Dylan Clark. The confirmed returning cast includes Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis as Alfred, and Paul Dano as the Riddler. Filming is slated to begin May 29 in London.
