50 Fun Facts About Batman Returns

Which actor plays Max Shreck, the corrupt tycoon named after a silent-film star, in Batman Returns?

Christopher Walken based Shreck on old-school moguls such as Samuel Goldwyn. The character was invented for the film to show that true villains do not always wear costumes.

A Catwoman film planned for Michelle Pfeiffer after Batman Returns finally arrived in 2004 starring which actress?

Halle Berry took the lead after a decade of delays, playing a new character called Patience Phillips. A photograph of Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle appears in the film among earlier Catwomen.

Which fast-food chain angered parents by promoting the dark Batman Returns to children with toy tie-ins?

McDonald's had dressed thousands of its restaurants as Gotham City for the film. After the backlash it began insisting on long advance previews before agreeing to promote a movie.

What shape is the amphibious vehicle that Danny DeVito's Penguin rides through the sewers and streets in Batman Returns?

A giant rubber duck carries the Penguin around the sewers and the city. The Super Nintendo game of the film makes wrecking the Duck Vehicle part of its final boss fight.

Which star of the 1989 Batman persuaded his hesitant friend Danny DeVito to accept the Penguin role in Batman Returns?

Jack Nicholson, the Joker of the first film, talked his close friend into the part. He was absent from the sequel himself, so the studio sold it on three characters instead of one.

Michael Keaton returned to his Batman Returns version of Bruce Wayne three decades later in which 2023 superhero film?

The Flash brought Keaton's Batman back through a multiverse story. He had also shot scenes in the role for Batgirl, a film the studio cancelled before anyone saw it.

Which animal, startled by Danny DeVito in full Penguin costume, leapt at him during a sewer scene in Batman Returns?

A monkey was meant to carry a note to the Penguin, with handlers guiding it from above and below. When it saw DeVito in full costume it lunged at him, and his padding took the blow.

Which actress was first cast as Catwoman in Batman Returns but had to withdraw when she became pregnant?

Annette Bening won the part on the strength of The Grifters, then had to give it up. Michelle Pfeiffer, who had been devastated to miss out, stepped in.

Michelle Pfeiffer trained for months with champion Kathy Long in which combat sport to play Catwoman in Batman Returns?

Kickboxing lessons ran alongside whip practice, and Long doubled for Pfeiffer on screen. Pfeiffer became skilled enough with the whip to perform many of her own stunts with it.

Which director took over the Batman film series from Tim Burton after Warner Bros. judged Batman Returns too dark?

Joel Schumacher was hired to make a sequel friendlier to families and to merchandise, Batman Forever. Burton stayed on as a producer, but Michael Keaton walked away from the cape.

Before she becomes Catwoman in Batman Returns, the timid Selina Kyle works for Max Shreck in which job?

Secretary to a tycoon was a deliberate choice. The writer wanted his Catwoman to begin at the lowest point in society, a beaten-down office worker, not a glamorous femme fatale.

How does Max Shreck try to silence Selina Kyle after she uncovers his plans in Batman Returns?

Shreck pushes her out a window at the office, but fabric canopies break her fall. A group of alley cats wakes her, and she goes home to stitch together a costume.

In Batman Returns, what would the power plant that Max Shreck wants to build secretly do to the city?

The plant would secretly drain Gotham's electricity and store it for Shreck. A blueprint of it was added at the suggestion of the actor playing him, and a model was built within hours.

Max Shreck persuades the Penguin to run for which public office in Batman Returns, hoping to unseat the incumbent?

Mayor of Gotham is the prize. The idea came from two episodes of the 1960s Batman television series in which the Penguin stands for the same job.

Where in Gotham do the Penguin and his gang hide out, among live penguins, in Batman Returns?

An abandoned zoo exhibit, the old Arctic display, is his lair. The set was kept so cold for the real birds that Danny DeVito said only his heavily padded costume kept him comfortable.

What is the birth name of the Penguin, the unwanted son of wealthy Gotham socialites, in Batman Returns?

Oswald Cobblepot is dumped in the sewers as a baby by parents horrified at his appearance. The writers gave him that rejection to mirror Bruce Wayne, who lost his own parents as a boy.

After his campaign collapses in Batman Returns, the Penguin plots to kidnap and kill which group of Gotham's children?

First-born sons are his targets, in revenge for his own abandonment as a baby. The plot was a late addition, made because studio executives insisted the Penguin needed a master plan.

What weapons are strapped to the Penguin's army of birds for their final march on Gotham in Batman Returns?

Missiles ride on the penguins' backs until Alfred overrides the control signal and turns the birds around. Early designs for the army gave them a flamethrower instead.

How does Catwoman finally kill Max Shreck, who has shot her several times, in Batman Returns?

Electrocuting him with a kiss, she holds a taser between her teeth and a live power cable in her hand. She survives his bullets, claiming to have two of her nine lives left.

Which actress arrived at the Warner Bros. lot in a homemade Catwoman costume to demand an audition for Batman Returns?

Sean Young had lost a part in the 1989 film to an injury and believed this one should be hers. Tim Burton is said to have hidden under his desk while others met her.

Michelle Pfeiffer was considered for which role in the 1989 Batman, years before playing Catwoman in Batman Returns?

Vicki Vale might have been hers, but Michael Keaton vetoed the casting. The two had dated, and he feared her presence would get in the way of reconciling with his wife.

Which comedian was cast as Robin for Batman Returns, and paid for it, before the character was written out?

Marlon Wayans had signed a two-film contract, and costumes and even action figures were made. Years later he said he was still receiving residual cheques for a part he never played.

Which star of Tim Burton's first feature film appears as the Penguin's father at the start of Batman Returns?

Paul Reubens, the Pee-wee Herman of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, plays the father who leaves his baby in the sewers. Diane Salinger, another veteran of that film, plays the mother.

Which actor, the Penguin of the 1960s Batman TV series, missed a planned cameo in Batman Returns through illness?

Burgess Meredith was due to appear as a relative of the new Penguin, a nod from one screen generation to the next. He fell ill during filming and the part was recast.

Which British actor plays the butler Alfred in Batman Returns, one of four Batman films in which he held the role?

Michael Gough served two directors and three different Batmen as Alfred between 1989 and 1997. Before that he was known for Hammer horror films, beginning with Dracula in 1958.

Which actor, later the creature in The Shape of Water, plays the Thin Clown in Batman Returns?

Doug Jones played the clown without prosthetics, a rarity in his career. He went on to play Guillermo del Toro's creatures, among them Abe Sapien, the Faun and the Pale Man.

Which composer scored Batman Returns despite his unhappiness that Prince songs had supplemented his 1989 Batman music?

Danny Elfman said he most enjoyed writing the Penguin's themes, because of the character's sympathetic side. He and Tim Burton fell out under deadline pressure and made up soon after.

Which British rock band co-wrote and performed Face to Face, the song heard at the costume ball in Batman Returns?

Siouxsie and the Banshees wrote it with the film's composer, and it plays while Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle dance. Its words allude to the two characters without naming them.

Which Terminator and Jurassic Park effects artist designed Danny DeVito's Penguin prosthetics for Batman Returns?

Stan Winston's studio made the prosthetics and thirty animatronic penguins. DeVito said getting ready took four and a half hours at first, cut to three by the end of the shoot.

Daniel Waters was hired to write Batman Returns because Tim Burton admired his script for which 1988 dark teen comedy?

Heathers had the dark tone Burton wanted, and he liked that its writer had no emotional attachment to Batman. Waters duly ignored both the first film's story and comic-book history.

Unlike the 1989 Batman, shot in England, Batman Returns was filmed mostly on soundstages in which California city?

Burbank is home to Warner Bros. Studios, where up to eight soundstages were used. Burton wanted American actors and felt the first film had suffered from a British subtext.

Batman Returns was shot under which working title, a jab at the studio's heavy on-set security?

Dictel, short for dictatorial, was coined by Burton and his production designer and printed on every crew ID badge. It was their protest at the studio's strict secrecy measures.

The towering Gotham sets of Batman Returns drew on which film movement of the 1920s?

German Expressionism, with its harsh shadows and distorted buildings, shaped the look, along with fascist-era monumental architecture. Welch wanted skyscrapers that turned the streets into dark canyons.

Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman suit in Batman Returns, so fragile that dozens of backups were needed, was which material?

Latex gave the tight, shiny look the designers wanted. Pfeiffer had to be covered in talcum powder to squeeze into the suit, and it was brushed with liquid silicone before every take.

Which stunt did Michelle Pfeiffer perform for real, with no visual effects, as Catwoman in Batman Returns?

Holding a bird in her mouth was done live on set, with a real bird and no computer imagery. Pfeiffer later said she would not do it again, given the risk of injury or disease.

Why was a final shot of Catwoman gazing at the Bat-Signal added to Batman Returns just before release?

Test audiences loved her, so the studio ordered a shot proving she had survived. Pfeiffer was unavailable and a stand-in wore the suit; the writer and director had meant the character to die.

Batman Returns earned Oscar nominations for visual effects and in which other category, for transforming Danny DeVito?

Best Makeup was the other nomination, and the BAFTAs nominated the film in the same two fields. Its makeup artists went on to win at the Saturn Awards.

Batman Returns was the third-biggest film of 1992 in North America, behind Aladdin and which sequel?

Home Alone 2 and Aladdin both out-earned it. Batman Returns had opened with a record weekend, beating the first Batman's mark, but its takings then fell steeply from week to week.

Which theme-park chain opened the roller coaster Batman: The Ride in 1992 as a tie-in to Batman Returns?

Six Flags built the first one at its Great America park for $8 million. It was the world's first inverted roller coaster, and the design was copied at other parks in the chain.

Which everyday object, rebuilt as a string of trick weapons and gadgets, is the Penguin's trademark in Batman Returns?

An umbrella has been the Penguin's trademark since his 1941 comic-book debut, and the film's designer drew up weaponised versions. One even carries Catwoman into the sky and drops her across town.

Which Johnny Depp film joins Batman Returns and The Nightmare Before Christmas in Tim Burton's Christmas trilogy?

Edward Scissorhands opens the unofficial trilogy and Batman Returns is its centrepiece. Though a summer blockbuster, the Batman film is now often listed among the best alternative Christmas films.

Which Japanese company made the acclaimed Super Nintendo beat 'em up based on Batman Returns, released in 1993?

Konami built it as a side-scrolling brawler much like Final Fight, with seven scenes drawn from the film. Nintendo Power ranked it among the ten best Super NES games of its year.

The Sega Genesis version of Batman Returns, unlike the Super Nintendo brawler, is which type of game?

A 2D platformer in the style of Sunsoft's game of the first film, it was published by Sega itself. Its story starts partway through the film, once the Penguin has framed Batman.

The Sega CD edition of the Batman Returns game added 3D levels of which kind to the Genesis original?

Racing levels put the player at the wheel of the Batmobile and showed off the add-on's graphics hardware. Reviewers who found the side-scrolling sections weak singled those stages out.

What is the name of the watercraft Batman pilots through Gotham's sewers in pursuit of the Penguin in Batman Returns?

The Batskiboat is part boat, part jet-ski. Its sewer chase was filmed with miniature tunnels, which were then repainted and reused for the journey shown under the opening titles.

Batman Returns was the first film released in which cinema sound format, in selected theaters in 1992?

Dolby Digital made its debut with the film, under the name Dolby Stereo Digital. The format went on to become a byword for surround sound in cinemas.

Max Shreck was invented for Batman Returns to replace which comic-book villain planned in the earliest scripts?

Two-Face was to have grown out of Harvey Dent, the district attorney of the first film. One trace survives: the fate Shreck meets at the climax was first written as the accident that disfigures Dent.

Which uncredited writer was brought in to streamline the Batman Returns script and give the Penguin a master plan?

Wesley Strick condensed the dialogue, lightened the tone and added the kidnapping plot. He spent months on set, yet Daniel Waters remained the only credited screenwriter.

Max Shreck in Batman Returns is named after the actor who played the vampire Count Orlok in which silent film?

Nosferatu starred Max Schreck in 1922, and the screenwriter likened his tycoon to that vampire. The debt was repaid when the director of a 2024 remake said Batman Returns had inspired its look.

The former circus performers who serve the Penguin in Batman Returns are known as which gang?

The Red Triangle Gang was first written as a troupe of performance artists and became circus clowns at Tim Burton's request.