In the final battle of The Batman, up in the rafters of Gotham Square Garden, the Caped Crusader injects himself with what appears to be “Venom,” the highly addictive strength-enhancing super-steroid that gives Bane his powers. This injection sent the Bat into a violent spiral until Jim Gordon managed to calm him down. This disturbing sequence teased the future introduction of Bane in this universe.
Bane has already been featured in two previous Batman franchises – played by Robert Swenson in Batman & Robin and later played to much more critical acclaim by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for Matt Reeves to come up with his own take on the character in The Batman universe. After he reimagined the Riddler as the Zodiac Killer, anything is possible. From Dave Bautista to Javier Bardem, there are plenty of great candidates to play a grounded version of Bane opposite Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight.
Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem might not be a strapping superman like most fan castings for Bane, but based on Reeves’ grounded, realistic approach to The Batman, he probably wouldn’t cast an enormous bodybuilder as Bane. Bardem would be a great choice for a version of Bane who isn’t 6’8” and 350 lbs but whose characterization is still comics-accurate.
Bardem won an Oscar for his chilling portrayal of a cold-hearted contract killer in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. If he brought that energy to The Batman universe, Bane could be even more terrifying than Paul Dano’s serial-killing Riddler.
Florian Munteanu
If Bane is being set up as a secondary villain – acting as the main villain’s muscle as opposed to being the main villain himself – then Reeves could be looking to cast a bodybuilder-sized actor with a comics-accurate physique. Florian Munteanu would be a fantastic choice for this kind of Bane.
He’s a hulking, intimidating actor with plenty of charisma. Munteanu played Ivan Drago’s son Viktor opposite Michael B. Jordan in Creed II and machete-armed henchman Razor Fist opposite Simu Liu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel has practically become a franchise unto himself, so he could easily cross over from Marvel to DC. Bane is the polar opposite of Diesel’s Marvel character, Groot. Groot is an adorable little talking tree who doesn’t like hurting innocent people; Bane is a giant, strapping, remorseless killer. But the actor’s previous work makes him a prime candidate.
The best parts of Diesel’s two most famous performances would combine to create the perfect on-screen incarnation of Bane. On top of his action-hero physique, Diesel has perfected the mumble-growl with the role of Dom Toretto, and also mastered unnerving audiences with the darkness of his spacebound antihero Richard B. Riddick.
Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson is one of the only actors in Hollywood whose physique is on the same behemoth scale as Bane’s. He’s also one of the only bona fide movie stars left in a landscape where sequels and reboots are taking precedence over big-name talent. Johnson has lobbied hard to play a Bond movie henchman. As a consolation prize, he could play a Venom-fueled Batman movie henchman instead.
The Rock is joining the mainline DCEU as Black Adam, which could prevent this casting, but since The Batman takes place on Earth-Two, it’s technically a different universe and Johnson is free to appear as a different DC Comics icon.
Édgar Ramírez
Since Reeves is unlikely to find an actor who’s a convincing physical match for Bane, the best bet would be to find an actor who’s right for the part and use CGI to Bane-ify his physique. If this is the case, Édgar Ramírez could be a strong choice for the role.
Ramírez gained international recognition for playing Gianni Versace in the second season of American Crime Story. He played boxer Roberto Durán and infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal, so he can play both physically imposing fighters and reprehensible monsters.
Jason Statham
If Reeves wants an actor who is convincingly tough-as-nails but doesn’t have a mega-sized superhuman physique, bona fide badass Jason Statham could be an ideal choice. Statham could believably throw Robert Pattinson’s Batman through a wall and break his back over his knee without growing a few feet and gaining 200 lbs.
While Statham has yet to appear in a major superhero blockbuster from DC or Marvel, some of his most deliriously entertaining movies have veered shamelessly into comic book territory, like The Meg and Hobbs & Shaw.
Dave Bautista
There’s arguably nobody more perfect for The Batman universe’s Bane than Dave Bautista. Tonally, The Batman has its cake and eats it, too: it’s a slick, stylized, action-packed comic book epic, but it’s also a rich, complex, deeply cinematic neo-noir.
Bautista is a master of straddling these two filmic styles. He captured comic-booky fun and superhuman brute force in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but still felt right at home in the more cerebral and nuanced world of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Plus, the wrestler-turned-actor played the deadliest (and most memorable) henchman in the Daniel Craig Bond movies.
