The Batman: Part II Set Footage Fuels Court of Owls and Anarky Speculation

Fresh set photos and videos from The Batman: Part II have added intriguing new context to the next chapter of Matt Reeves' Gotham saga. The London-shot material appears to show Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne leaving the Gotham Bar Association while police officers protect him from a furious crowd of protesters. On its own, the scene suggests that Gotham's richest and most visible citizen is facing a public backlash. The signs, masks, and imagery carried by that crowd have now sparked major speculation that the film may be drawing from the mythology of the Court of Owls.

There is no official confirmation that the secretive DC Comics organization will appear in the movie, and audiences should treat any character conclusions based on production footage with caution. Still, the details seen in the protest sequence are notably specific. They align with the themes of entrenched wealth, civic rot, hidden power, and institutional corruption that have already defined Reeves' version of Gotham City.

The footage also contains a potentially separate clue: a masked protester whose clothing includes a prominent anarchy symbol. That visual has led some fans to wonder whether Anarky, one of Batman's most explicitly political adversaries, could have a role in the story. It may be nothing more than set dressing or a single extra's costume, but the possibility is especially interesting given what the character could represent in a city already pushed toward social collapse.

Embedded X/Twitter post

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Bruce Wayne appears to be a target of Gotham's unrest

The London material reportedly shows Reeves filming alongside cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt. In the scene, Bruce is escorted down the steps of the Gotham Bar Association by Gotham City Police Department officers, moving through a crowded demonstration before reaching a waiting Bentley. Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon was reportedly present during the filming as well, indicating that Gordon may be directly involved in getting Bruce through the confrontation.

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A stand-in for Andy Serkis' Alfred Pennyworth was seen near the car. Serkis himself is currently occupied in New Zealand, where he is directing and starring in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. The use of a double naturally does not reveal anything concrete about Alfred's role in this particular sequence, but it reinforces that the production is staging a moment involving Bruce's closest confidant and the consequences of a highly public crisis.

The crowd's message is the most revealing part of the sequence. Placards reportedly include phrases such as "Court of Oligarchs," "Court of Fouls," "The Richer Get Richer," "Re$i$t," "Eat the Rich," and "Oligarchs Gotta Go!" Other signs condemn greed and warn of worsening hardship for Gotham's poor. They paint a clear picture of a city where the public believes that the wealthy have insulated themselves from the suffering around them.

That makes Bruce Wayne an obvious symbol for the protesters' anger. The first film established Gotham as a place devastated by political corruption, criminal networks, neglected communities, and the unequal distribution of opportunity. Bruce's own family legacy was deeply complicated by revelations involving Thomas and Martha Wayne, the Renewal Fund, and the damage caused when good intentions became tangled with Gotham's corrupt systems. A sequel that puts Bruce face-to-face with public resentment would be a natural continuation of those ideas.

Why the Court of Owls theory fits Reeves' Gotham

The phrase "Court of Oligarchs" is at the center of the growing Court of Owls speculation. In DC Comics, the Court of Owls is a clandestine society made up of some of Gotham's oldest, wealthiest, and most influential figures. Operating in the shadows for generations, the group works to protect its own power and shape the city's future from behind closed doors. Its members are often associated with owl masks, old-money privilege, and a belief that Gotham belongs to them.

The organization became especially prominent in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's acclaimed Batman comics run, where Bruce Wayne discovers that the city he thought he understood had long been controlled by forces beyond the reach of traditional politics, law enforcement, or corporate influence. The Court's existence challenges Bruce's assumptions about his family, his city, and the limits of his ability to fight Gotham's corruption as Batman.

That premise would fit comfortably within Reeves' grounded crime-thriller approach. The Batman did not present corruption as a simple problem with one mastermind at the top. Instead, it depicted a city where police, gangsters, public officials, charitable institutions, and powerful families could all be connected to the same poisonous ecosystem. The Riddler's campaign exposed those failures in brutal fashion, but it did not solve them. Gotham was left flooded, traumatized, and more unstable than before.

A Court of Owls storyline could take that concept further. Rather than merely introducing another costumed criminal, it could explore the idea that Gotham's decay has been maintained by a network that thrives on inequality. The protesters' anti-oligarch language makes thematic sense in that framework. If ordinary residents suspect that wealthy elites are manipulating the city for their own benefit, then Bruce Wayne could find himself publicly associated with the very forces Batman is trying to uncover.

There is an especially sharp irony in the apparent protest imagery. While the crowd views Bruce as part of Gotham's privileged class, some signs reportedly invoke Batman as a savior or threat against the corrupt. One reads "Save Us," while another incorporates a Batman-style mask alongside the message "I'm coming for you next." Bruce may be admired by the people as Batman while being despised as Bruce Wayne, forcing him to confront the gulf between the two identities in a more direct way than before.

White masks and an anarchy symbol raise another possibility

Several people in the crowd reportedly wear plain white masks that conceal their faces. Masks alone are not proof of a Court of Owls connection; protest scenes often use face coverings for anonymity, and Reeves' Gotham has already made masks central to its visual language. However, white masks do echo the visual territory commonly linked with secret societies, elite conspiracies, and the Court's iconography.

One particular protester has attracted more attention because their jacket appears to feature a white anarchy symbol. The costume resembles elements associated with Anarky in Batman: Arkham Origins, prompting theories that the character, his followers, or at least an Anarky-inspired movement could be part of the film's conflict.

In the comics, Anarky is Lonnie Machin, a young and intellectually gifted opponent of Batman who channels anger at government and corporate power into violent action. He is often Batman's most overtly ideological foe, challenging institutions he views as fundamentally unjust. Depending on the story, Anarky can be portrayed as a villain, an antihero, or a radical whose criticisms are understandable even when his methods are unacceptable.

Anarky has appeared in live-action television through Arrow and has featured in animation, including Beware the Batman. He has not, however, appeared in a Batman theatrical film. That history makes the theory worth considering, particularly because Reeves has said that the villain in The Batman: Part II is someone who has not really been brought to the movies before.

Even so, a single symbol on a background performer is far from definitive evidence. It could simply help communicate the mood of the protest, reflect Gotham's broader anti-establishment sentiment, or be an intentional reference without signaling that Lonnie Machin is a named character. Productions also frequently use costumes, signage, and location details to enrich a scene without turning every visual element into a plot reveal.

A collision of wealth, corruption, and vengeance

If the Court of Owls and Anarky theories both prove meaningful, the sequel could place Batman between two very different responses to Gotham's inequality. The Court would represent power hoarded and protected by an unseen ruling class. Anarky would represent rage directed against that system, potentially with no concern for the people caught in the middle. Bruce, meanwhile, would be forced to reckon with how his inherited wealth looks to a population struggling to survive.

That would build naturally on the conclusion of The Batman, where Bruce began to understand that vengeance alone could not heal Gotham. His rescues during the flood positioned Batman as a symbol of hope, but hope is much harder to sustain when citizens feel abandoned by every public institution around them. The sequel may test whether Bruce can use both of his identities to create change rather than merely respond to catastrophe.

For now, the set footage offers atmosphere and thematic clues rather than answers. It confirms a volatile Gotham, a threatened Bruce Wayne, and a protest movement that sees class division as central to the city's problems. Whether that unrest leads to the Court of Owls, Anarky, another new cinematic villain, or a combination of those ideas remains unconfirmed. But the images suggest that Gotham's next crisis may be rooted not only in crime, but in the people and institutions allowed to rule from above.