New ‘The Batman: Part II’ Set Photos All but Confirm a Major DC Villain’s Live-Action Debut

Matt Reeves has kept ‘The Batman: Part II’ locked down tight since filming began, doling out only the smallest crumbs of information through carefully controlled set photos and cryptic production details. That secrecy has made every scrap of set footage feel like a genuine puzzle piece for fans trying to figure out exactly what direction this sequel is heading.

Much of that puzzle has already been building toward one specific theory. Between the sequel’s mysterious working title, “Semper Vigilans,” Latin for “always vigilant,” and a subtle owl-shaped curtain arrangement spotted in the background of ‘The Penguin’ finale, fans have spent months piecing together clues suggesting Gotham’s secretive Court of Owls could be making its live-action debut.

Now, new photos and video from the London set may have finally confirmed it. Footage shows a full-blown protest scene unfolding on the steps of what appears to be a courthouse, complete with placards, eerie white masks, and a crowd surrounding what looks like Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne being escorted through the chaos.

Among the signs held up by the demonstrators is one reading “Court of Fowls,” a clear, deliberate play on the Court of Owls, one of Batman’s more mysterious and comics-recent adversaries. Several protesters can also be seen wearing pale, owl-like masks strongly resembling the Talons, the Court’s trained assassins, adding real visual weight to the theory.

Other signage spotted in the same scene includes a banner reading “I’m Coming For You Next” alongside a drawn Bat-cowl, plus another sign declaring “This Is Savage.” Combined with the courthouse setting and police visibly escorting someone through the crowd, the sequence appears to depict a tense public confrontation rather than a passing background detail.

“COURT OF FOWLS” sign spotted on the set of ‘The Batman: Part 2’ 🦉🦇 (📸 @robymav_) https://t.co/1lQteavcTr

— The Batman Saga News (@TheBatmanSagaNW) September 13, 2026

This isn’t the first hint pointing toward the Court of Owls this production cycle. Production sources had previously uncovered the sequel’s “Semper Vigilans” working title, a phrase that closely echoes the ominous Court of Owls nursery rhyme from the comics, warning that the secretive group “watches all the time” while ruling Gotham from a “shadowed perch.”

Fans had also flagged a subtler tease months earlier in ‘The Penguin’ HBO series, which bridges the first film and its sequel. In that show’s finale, as Oz Cobb visits a Gotham City Hall courtroom, a row of curtains in the background forms distinct owl silhouettes, a detail many took as an early, deliberate nod toward the organization’s eventual arrival.

Reeves himself has fueled this speculation further by suggesting that the villains featured in ‘The Batman: Part II’ carry ties to Bruce Wayne’s own past, a detail that lines up closely with the Court of Owls’ comic book history as a secret society embedded among Gotham’s oldest, wealthiest families. In the comics, the Court has existed since the city’s earliest days in the 1600s, using murder and money to quietly control Gotham from the shadows for centuries.

Taken together, this latest protest scene feels less like a coincidental prop choice and more like the strongest confirmation yet that Reeves is finally bringing this shadowy organization into live-action for the first time. Given how carefully the production has hidden its cards until now, the choice to let this particular Easter egg slip in such an active, visible scene suggests it may not stay hidden much longer.

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