Zoë Kravitz’s Selina Kyle in The Batman is bisexual, thank you very much
The actor shares her interpretation of one scene in the new The Batman
Aux News Zoë Kravitz
One of life’s greatest truths is that Catwoman is bisexual. Long before it was canon in the comic books, Selina Kyle has oozed bisexuality. In fact, The Batman may be the most bisexual installment we’ve ever seen in the Batman universe. From the casting to the overall moodiness of this chapter—the film has a certain je ne sais quoi. To take it even further, Zoë Kravitz has explicitly brought this aspect to the big screen with her interpretation of the antiheroine with one little “baby.”
In the soon arriving The Batman, Kyle enters her apartment looking for her friend Anika, and calls her “baby.” While this could be read as platonic, Kravitz says she interprets that moment as hinting at a romantic relationship.
“That’s definitely the way I interpreted that, that they had some kind of romantic relationship,” Kravitz says in an interview with Pedestrian. When the interviewer then expresses joy at the idea of Kravitz’s Catwoman being bisexual, Kravitz exclaims, “I agree!”
In another interview for the outlet, director Matt Reeves agrees with Kravitz’s take on Kyle.
“[The film is] very true to the character of Selina Kyle. She’s not yet Catwoman, but all the elements of how she’s going to become Catwoman are there,” Reeves says.
“I don’t think we meant to go directly in that way, but you can interpret it that way for sure. She has an intimacy with that character and it’s a tremendous and deep caring for that character, more so than a sexual thing, but there was meant to be quite an intimate relationship between them,” he adds.
While this is definitely scrapping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to actual on-screen representation, hopefully there will be more opportunities to explore this aspect of Catwoman’s identity in later installments, instead of just focusing on her lust for Bruce Wayne.
The Batman opens in theaters this Friday, March 4.
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“[The film is] very true to the character of Selina Kyle. She’s not yet
Catwoman, but all the elements of how she’s going to become Catwoman are
there,” Reeves says.I’m so tired of origin stories, especially for characters like Catwoman that are already so familiar.
But it’s not an origin story for Batman so it’s okay. /s
Ummm…what exactly is Batman’s origin story? I don’t think it’s ever been told.
He got bitten by a bat and instead of getting COVID, he became a millionaire, I think? IDK. They should look into exploring that part of his life.
“And that little boy who fell down the well went on to become…Batman!And now you know…the rest of the story. Again.”
Pretty sure some smiley guy tazed Wayne’s parents outside the theater right after they saw the touring company of Wicked.
I initially misread that as “Pretty sure some guy smiley tazed…” and that gave it a whole new angle to Batman. 😛
Probably because of all the implied bisexuality (boarding school, amirite?). Audiences just aren’t ready to see—or rather, not see but have subtly implied—that kind of story, yet.
Seriously. Patience Phillips gets pushed out of a window by her evil cosmetics company and a magical cat burps in her mouth. We’ve all seen it already.
god damn I’m sick of all these movies “hinting” at queerdom with its central heroes/villains. Birds of Prey was so frustrating to watch with McGregor and Messina obviously fucking but not fucking lol.Peacemaker being bi in a throwaway line the other night.Just give us something reallll.
For queerness representation, the CW shows deliver in spades.
It is odd how the DC TV shows go so completely the other way of the movies. Like, who ISN’T bi in the Arrowverse?
hell yes it does. Especially with Legends of Tomorrow.
Yeah, but they’re not very good anymore.
My daughters (and a lot of their friends) are more straightforward and direct about their queerness than any of these movies, and my kids are under 16 years of age. There’s no need for just hinting.
I mean, Peacemaker’s deuteragonist is a gay black woman…
harley dated a girl in the birds of prey animated intro. you blink and you miss it! idk if margot robbie said harley was also into girls at the time of promoting bop but she definitely said it in interviews during the suicide squad interviews. there was an interview of ewan and chris or one of them and they were asked if their characters were romantic partners and they were just like uhhhhhhh and gave a non answer. lmao.vakyrie coming out of a room after sleeping with a woman cut out of thor ragnorak. tessa later said she viewed the valkyrie that was killed in front of her as her gf in an interview. thor love and thunder is supposed to have valkyrie be very sapphic but what does that mean relatively? she’s gonna hold a girl’s hand for a millisecond while disney has a panic attack?
gotta get that money from china!
lol and fucking Loki too being barely hinted at as being queer. Just maddening, especially because Superheroes are soooo queer.
… and in the actual historical myths, Loki gave birth to an 8-legged horse, Sleipnir among other things!Just to avoid any accusations of ambiguity or dancing around the subject, this happened because while in the form of a female horse, Loki got fucked by a male horse, just so we’re clear.
Nah I liked how they did it in Loki, it was treated as a matter-of-fact understanding between the two versions of him, and not something that needed further exploring because as a god who is thousands of years old, I think Loki has had plenty of time to find themselves and their identity. To me it seemed like normalizing bisexuality, instead of treating it as something that needs a ton of explanation. I get that every bi character should be different, with no one cookie-cutter coming out story, which is why I like how Loki was more subdued about acknowledging their queerness.
I thought it was pretty clear in Thor: Ragnarok that the valkyrie who sacrificed herself that sent Valkyrie tumbling down a self-destructive path of alcoholism and despair was her wife.
It’s “obvious” in the way that the winking and nodding makes it obvious, but it’s not obvious in the way that a man who would have just said “I haven’t been the same since my wife died” is obvious. It’s crystal clear, but they’re still being cute about it in a way they never are with straight relationships.
None of the passed four MCU films (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eternals, Shang-Chi, and Black Widow) have aired in China. They do not care about China anymore. Even Mulan didn’t play in China. Eternals had multiple openly gay characters. This isn’t a thing anymore. Catch up.
China isn’t into the MCU anymore. This is a known thing.
And, of course, Renee Montoya is openly gay in Birds of Prey, and her ex-girlfriend plays a substantial part in many of her scenes.
Same in Gotham.
Peacemaker had a more explicit line in episode one:Okay, look, I’ve been in prison the last four years, okay?
I haven’t been with anyone … I haven’t been with any woman in a long time.
I honestly haven’t given this idea much thought, but I’m not sure that having prison sex = being bisexual.
Yeah, same here. I agree.
You should check out Josh Gad in Beauty & The Beast. They nail it in that one.
If you’re that preoccupied with superhero sex, there’s plenty of cosplay porn on PornHub for you.
That’s all it’ll ever be as long as they want to sell these movies in China/Singapore, or until those countries change their tune. Studios will happily hint at it to score that progressive dollar, while making sure it never impacts the movie enough that it can’t be cut for those markets.
BOP has an unambiguous lesbian relationship. Also, Messina and McGregor played psychopaths.
my new rule for queer representation is that if the filmmakers have to tell me about it in an interview outside the text, it’s not queer representation
i’m all for catwoman being a woman of the world, but if this is all you’re gonna do then why even bother
Have and eat cake.
A little weird that this whole article/quote is in reference to a scene in a movie that hasn’t been released yet and nobody has seen?
“Yeah kinda seems like the A.V. Club was eager to be the one to “say it first here, which is… disappointing. Wait til the film comes out. Woof.
I fucking hate when the actors or filmmakers trot out stuff like that in interview. Like, STFU. When it comes to hot, sensitive issues like sexuality representation, either confirm a character’s sexuality on screen or swallow your words. These kinds of sound bites always lead to titillating but misleading headlines like “CATWOMAN BI IN NEW MOVIE” that the studios love to cash in for cheap PR points. And sure, I blame the media and especially the blogosphere for excitedly running these “revealing” headlines, but by this point, it’s not a surprise. Don’t bait your queer audiences. Put out or shut up.I expect this kinda’ shit from Disney, but pretty disappointed when other studios do it.
At this point I generally expect an actor to say “oh I totally played this character with the thought in mind that he (she) is queer.” It means less than nothing at this point and moved straight on to annoying.My favorite is still Dumbledore, a 100+ year-old dude given no hint of sexuality whatsoever. Gay!
Agreed, I was just thinking the same thing yesterday because of the post about Josh Gad recognizing that Beauty and the Beast’s “gay moment” was barely anything—reminded me of Kelly Marie Tran talking about playing Raya from Raya and the Last Dragon as having a crush on her female frenemy. Like… that’s nice I guess but yeah I’m tired of the baiting and extremely subtle hinting that I’m supposed to get excited about.
Nah, I will keep interpreting it as platonic.
Selena Kyle is bisexual?? Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious.
but does she eat ass?
“In fact, The Batman may be the most bisexual installment we’ve ever seen in the Batman universe. From the casting to the overall moodiness of this chapter—the film has a certain je ne sais quoi”Joel Schumacher is rolling over in his sequined coffin.
But what’s Josh Gad’s take?
Well, she’d have to be, since Batman doesn’t do oral.
In fact, The Batman may be the most bisexual installment we’ve ever seen in the Batman universe. You’re telling me The Penguin from Batman Returns isn’t a queer icon?
Or like, anything that happens in the Schumacher movies. It’s a pretty high bar to clear to make the queerest Batman movie!
for all that the Beeboverse stomps the MCTVU’s quality and frequency of LGBT representation, this promo/tease for DC is some Disney/Marvel “exclusively gay moment”-tier shit.
Hey Gabrielle, maybe don’t queerbait on your way out, yeah?
Listen everyone, these are superhero movies, not erotic thrillers. If you want to see your favorite superheroes having queer sex for some reason, you can. Go to Pornhub and click the “cosplay” category.
Well this just opened a can of…. cats.. but from now on, certain fan cohorts will now be “shipping” Catwoman with every other female Bat-villain (Harley, Poison Ivy, etc.) and some of Bruce Wayne’s recurring girlfriends (Silver St. Cloud, Vicki Vale, Vesper Fairchild, Shondra Kinsolving)… and unless there’s an outright Sapphic love scene between Catwoman and ________ in forthcoming comics and cartoons, then there’s going to be online petitions to ban the next film or to fire the current comics’ creative teams because of ‘queer erasure’… For decades, Catwoman was portrayed as straight, in comics, TV, etc. No big deal. So many of these retroactive hot takes from online folks who may have taken a class in gender studies now want to flamethrow on the character’s past portrayals as being ‘queer-hostile’ because she had a crush on Batman, indignantly insisting that she’s “always” been on the LGBTQ spectrum. Sheesh. DC is better off inventing new characters rather than retrofitting 1/3 of preexisting characters and remixing them anew as (apparently) deeply closeted. It’s just.. (sigh)… I’m going to see the movie, and I don’t think this little “nod” ruins the character, but the online fan-hordes who tend to think that “head-canon” automatically overrides what’s been printed and published…. (double-sigh).. You know what, I’m leaving it alone.. lol.. have fun!
(sigh)… yo know what, I’m leaving it alone.. You know, your exasperation would’ve sounded a lot more sincere if you’d expressed it before typing out an entire deranged right-wing outrage fantasy. Like, your post unironically reads like an erotic fanfic where the author’s central kink is getting riled up over dumb progressives.Seriously, I’m about as anti-cancel culture as you’ll get on this site and even I think the entire scenario you’ve concocted is first-degree horseshit.
I know plenty about comics history and then some… we’ll see… we’ll just have to see.. who saw the super outrage coming over Batgirl apparently having a trans villain? whoops.. https://comicsalliance.com/batgirl-37-criticized-for-transphobic-content-creative-team-apologizes/
Says “gender studies” unironically.Then posts link proving critical cancel correctness run A M O A E K, old enough that every image is broken, to rando-mando thing that happened at some point in human history that falls apart when you actually read the thing that the link links to with your eyes.This tracks.
online fan-hordes who tend to think that “head-canon” automatically overrides what’s been printed and published
As this article notes, Catwoman has been portrayed as bisexual in the comics since 2015. If I remember correctly, it was implied ambiguously all the way back in Batman: Year One too.
Catwoman has been canonically bisexual in the comics for seven years. Your hypotheticals have not yet come to pass. But nice concern-trolling over an issue you know nothing about! https://www.theverge.com/2015/2/27/8123489/catwoman-bisexual-dc-comics-lgbtq
“but from now on, certain fan cohorts will now be “shipping” Catwoman with every other female Bat-villain (Harley, Poison Ivy, etc.)“
You think this hasn’t been happening for decades? Don’t check my hard drive.
Catwoman’s already been portrayed as bisexual in canon and spinoffs before. She was first seen kissing a woman (Eiso Hasigawa) in Catwoman #39 from 2015. She’s been paired up with Batwoman a couple times (they kiss in DC Bombshells and the recent film Catwoman: Hunted, where she invites Batwoman to take a bath with her). There’s also this:
Also…nothing is stopping her from dating men. Bi = attraction to same and different genders. She’s not going to stop dating Batman.
Wow, she went full Robbie/Pfeiffer with that cover, huh?
Yeah, when you’re just mixing two movies up for your cover, that’s hardly evidence of anything ‘canon.’But more importantly, what’s going on with those gloves? They stop before her wrists? No one has gloves like that.
Your pretty faceSatan: “Whose that?”Gary: “thats Bain he’s Batman’s Bisexual arch nemesis”
Well I think that one line means Catwoman is pan and doesn’t even care about gender signifiers. So take that, Zoe Kravitz.
So Catwoman likes pussy.
There was literally a post-coital scene in Peacemaker where he’d obviously just had a three-way with that guy’s girlfriend he tied up in the apartment in episode one and Vigilante. I think without providing a fullblown sex scene, Peacemaker’s bisexuality was made pretty explicit by episode two.
Interesting choice. With all the Year One allusions I would have assumed that Kyle would be living with (and not sleeping with) Holly Robinson, but I know this is more of an inspiration thing than an adaptation thing, and that’s probably for the best.
For whatever reason, I absolutely read her has being Bi in Year One the first time I read it and that was well over 20 years ago now.
I mean, the adam west batman was one of the gayest shows in the history of tv.
who cares what sexuality anybody is anyway. you love who you love, you fuck who you fuck. anybody who gets angry about who other people fuck (assert not children) or love is demented.
I’m glad that the you mentioned right off the bat that Catwoman has been queer in the comics, and not just one iteration, but several writers have depicted her that way. It is lame when a studio pats themselves on the back for playing a canon bi character as bi, yet only kind of hinting at it so China doesn’t get pissed, and then leaves it up to the actress to take the onus of clarification upon herself.
Like, actually bisexual or bisexual in the same way that Dumbledore is gay?
Noooooooo! The sexy badass burglar who likes slinking around everywhere in skin-tight leather and/or lycra also likes kissing girls sexily as well as boys!Actually…Wait.I think I can see an upside to this.
Well good for her then.So back in Realworldia, what’s the over-under on this Catwoman hinting at LESS querity in the actual movie than Anne Hathaway’s did in TDKR with gal-pal roommate bestie “Jen”?