Four years after leaving behind her Black Widow suit, Scarlett Johansson is headed to the DC Universe, by way of Gotham City. The actress is reportedly in final talks to join The Batman Part II, the long-gestating sequel to Matt Reeves’ 2022 film.

Reports state she will first film The Exorcist, the upcoming project from Mike Flanagan which she signed onto late last month, before doing Batman. The sequel aims to begin filming next year.

It’s been a long road to The Batman Part II, which Warner Bros. first announced in April 2022. By early 2023, DC Studios’ James Gunn and Peter Safran had said the film would be released in October 2025, before pushing it back to October 2026, and now to October 2027. Robert Pattinson will return to star as Bruce Wayne, with filmmaker Reeves both directing and co-writing the script with Mattson Tomlin.

Plot details and any news of additional casting are being kept locked down in Arkham… it’s not even clear whether Barry Keoghan’s Joker, teased in the final moments of the first film, is involved with the sequel.

That hasn’t stopped outlets and fans alike from speculating about who Johansson might play, however. Harley Quinn has already had a lot of screen time with Joker: Folie à Deux, so her character appearing in Reeves’ film seems somewhat unlikely. Likewise, Sofia Falcone is already being played by Cristin Milioti in the spinoff series The Penguin. Speculations abound that Johansson could play Andrea Beaumont, aka Phantasm, an old flame of Bruce’s in the comics and a serial-killer villain. Again, however, this is little more than guesswork at this point.