Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen Almost Reunited as Villains in The Batman

Jonah Hill had been connected to The Batman, but passed on the role after negotiations fell through.
His old Superbad and Knocked Up costar Seth Rogen had also been negotiating for a villain role.
Neither will now appear in the movie, which is due on June 25, 2021.

With news slowly trickling out about 2021's The Batman , a few names have been officially locked in Robert Pattinson as Batman , Zo Kravitz as Catwoman but a few others have been unofficially floating around. For a while, one of those names was Jonah Hill , who was connected to potentially play a villain, either The Penguin or The Riddler. Anyone hoping to see Hill face off with Pattinson is out of luck, though, as Variety reported yesterday that Hill passed on the role .

Perhaps even more interesting, is that when it was determined that Hill would indeed be targeted for The Riddler role, his old buddy Seth Rogen entered negotiations to take on that Penguin part. Unfortunately for anyone with even the slightest curiosity to see the former Knocked Up co-stars as dark Batman villains, though, the Rogen idea fell through as well.

"On the Seth Rogen BATMAN rumor: there were some initial talks for him to play Penguin while WB courted Hill for Riddler (once they settled on him actually playing Riddler and not Penguin), but that too didn't work out," Hollywood Reporter writer Borys Kit wrote in a tweet.

On the Seth Rogen BATMAN rumor: there were some initial talks for him to play Penguin while WB courted Hill for Riddler (once they settled on him actually playing Riddler and not Penguin), but that too didn't work out. Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit)

It's certainly interesting to imagine; while Hill's participation as a villain was somewhat against-type, he's dabbled in darker parts in the last decade with The Wolf of Wall Street,War Dogs, and Netflix's Maniac. Rogen, on the other hand, has largely stuck to his signature brand of comedythe closest he's come to a dramatic role was playing Steve Wozniak in the Steve Jobs biopic Steve Jobs.

So while the Superbad reunion won't come to fruition in The Batman, at least we have an idea of what they're looking for in these parts. If comedic chops are a requirement, Bill Hader as The Riddler, anyone? (Barry fans, I know you're with me).