Sebastian Stan just set the bar uncomfortably high for The Batman: Part II. Talking to Variety about the long-gestating sequel, Stan reached for one of cinema's most sacred comparisons and didn't blink.

"I go to set sometimes and I look around and I'm like, I think we're making f***ing 'The Godfather Part Two,'" Stan said. "I feel that highly about it."

That's not a line an actor drops casually. Stan said director Matt Reeves has spent three years shaping the film, and that the secrecy around it is deliberate. "There's no way people will fully grasp how this movie is until they see it," he said, adding that despite the speculation swirling around his own character, the eventual reveal is going to be worth the wait. "It's really grounded and real, and that's what I loved about it," he said, while also admitting the studio wants to tease things carefully because "we still have a long time."

And there is a long time. The Batman: Part II doesn't land until February 18, 2028, which means fans have roughly a year and a half of exactly this kind of drip-feed to survive on.

Who is Stan actually playing?

Here's where it gets messy. Reports initially pegged Stan as Harvey Dent, and he seemed to confirm as much in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche. Then came the walkback, with subsequent reports claiming he'd been misquoted and that nothing about the role was actually locked down.

Since then, another rumour has entered the chat: that Stan is playing Victor Zsasz, the killer who marks his own skin for every victim. Neither claim has been confirmed by Stan, Reeves or Warner Bros., so treat both as exactly what they are, competing rumours and nothing more.

Reeves himself has stayed cagier than usual, but he has dropped one useful hint. The villain, whoever it turns out to be, is someone who's "never really been done in a movie before," he said, while stressing that Robert Pattinson's Batman stays at the centre of the story regardless of who's circling him. "Picking the right villain that digs into what that does and goes into his past and his life, that was what drove that discussion," Reeves said.

So the pieces are there. A director who's spent three years on this, an actor invoking Coppola, and a villain identity nobody outside the production actually knows yet. The next real update, presumably, comes whenever Warner Bros. Decides the drip-feed needs another drop. Until then, the Harvey Dent versus Victor Zsasz debate isn't going anywhere.