Michelle Pfeiffer Considering Return To Iconic Role
Michelle Pfeiffer has been in more amazing movies than most, but it seems she can be tempted back to her biggest role of all.
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Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the most acclaimed and legendary actors of her generation. She has done everything from hit movies that changed culture like Brian De Palma’s Scarface to quirky cult films like Jonathan Demme’s Married to the Mob to current megablockbusters like Ant-Man and the Wasp. But perhaps more than any other in her long and wildly diverse career, there is a single role that fires up the public imagination: Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. She portrayed the popular comic book character in Tim Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns to critical praise and the delight of the latex vinyl costume industry, and according to a recent profile in The Hollywood Reporter, she would be up for returning to the role.
Of course, there is some reason for checking in with Michelle Pfeiffer if she would consider returning to the role that inspired 10,000 Halloween costumes. Michael Keaton, her co-star in Batman Returns, is reprising the title character (and its title action) for the first time in 30 years in the upcoming, often-delayed Flash movie for the DCEU and also for the Leslie Grace-starring Batgirl. It is a pretty big get for Warner Bros’ ongoing plussing up of the DCEU, but Michelle Pfeiffer would be at least as big. Since Batman Returns, three actresses have played Catwoman; Halle Berry in a much and rightly maligned solo film in 2004, Anne Hathaway in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, and currently Zoë Kravitz in The Batman. By contrast, seven different live-action actors have played Bruce Wayne in various projects since Keaton, which means the relative value ratio might be a little skewed.
It is unknown whether Warner Bros has any designs on bringing Michelle Pfeiffer back to the Batfold, but they certainly are setting themselves up for multiple versions of iconic characters to co-exist in the DCEU. With both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck set to appear in The Flash, there is no reason Michelle Pfeiffer and Zoë Kravitz could not also have some kind of feline-tinged interaction at some point. Pfeiffer does already have a comic book gig as Janet Van Dyne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it is difficult to think of any actor that might generate as much excitement. Speaking of which, has anyone checked in with Danny DeVito to ask if he would be willing to come back and bite off anyone’s nose as The Penguin?
While Batman Returns is thus far Michelle Pfeiffer’s only performance as Catwoman, she made it her own in a way perhaps no actor has done before or since. Her dual role as the initially mousy and insecure Selina Kyle and the seductive and deadly (and seemingly unkillable) Catwoman struck a nerve with audiences, and there was even talk of a solo movie for her that Hollywood predictably managed to chip away at until it turned in this. So, if anyone at Warner Bros is listening, don’t miss your shot with Michelle Pfeiffer this time around. After all, she would be purr-fectly willing to consider coming back.
