Zach Cregger is riding high thanks to the positive critical and audience response to Weapons. He’s already at work on a new Resident Evil movie, but word got out about a DC script Cregger has written on spec called Henchman. Cregger hasn’t met with James Gunn about the potential project, but after learning what Henchman’s story is about, I need to see this movie get fast-tracked.
Because Zach Cregger’s Henchman is a riff on one of the absolute best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.
The Man Who Killed Batman
The story of Henchman is about a lowly crook who happens to seemingly kill Batman by a stroke of luck. Thanks to this, he gains fame in the Gotham City underworld, but it also attracts the attention of envious rogues from Batman’s gallery of foes.
It’s a fun concept and it means that Zach Cregger is a big fan of “The Man Who Killed Batman”, an episode of Batman: The Animated Series written by Batman icon Paul Dini. In the episode, a dweeby Z-grade hood named Sid the Squid does believe he accidentally kills Batman. This leads to him being beloved by other low-level crooks, but the Joker eventually snaps Sid up in an effort to find out if Batman really is gone for good.
“The Man Who Killed Batman” is easily one of the standout entries in Batman: The Animated Series, and Zach Cregger using it as the basis for Henchman sounds like it could have a ton of potential. However, this is a story template that has been played before in comics and animation. The comic book Hench by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello has a somewhat similar premise and was even being developed into a movie years ago for Danny McBride. There’s also the character of Henchman 21 from the cult favorite animated series The Venture Bros., though that’s a broader and less focal take on the henchman concept.
More Non-Batman Batman Movies
One of the really special parts of Zach Cregger getting to potentially make Henchman is the idea of getting a story set in Gotham City that doesn’t really have Batman in the spotlight. We saw how much audiences enjoyed The Penguin. The Caped Crusader has gotten to anchor so many cinematic outings that people are ready to see more movies and shows where Batman isn’t the protagonist.
Zach Cregger’s Henchman allows that perfect opportunity to do a Batman movie without Batman. That alone is the kind of hook that could bring in a lot of interested viewers who might not feel as interested in yet another reiteration of a Batman-centric blockbuster.
It would also mean you’d get to do something on a much smaller scale, something that a lot of audiences want to see with superhero cinema. Instead of having to save the city/world/multiverse, Zach Cregger’s Henchman is a small scale story where the stakes would really be about the lead character and his life. Getting to see a superhero story where the lead isn’t a superhero sounds exactly like the kind of fresh idea the genre could use.
I’m doubtful Zach Cregger will ever make Henchman with the current trajectory for the DCU. But hey, anything can happen! Regardless, go watch “The Man Who Killed Batman” because it’s great.
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