Batman Returns saw the Caped Crusader coming face to face with the Penguin and Catwoman, but had the writers gone for their initial plan, these two villains would have teamed up under very different circumstances that would have messed with the tone of the film. Batman has gone through many adaptations both for television and film, and among his most successful and memorable ones are Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989 and Batman Returns, released three years later.
Both films had Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman and brought some of his most iconic enemies to the big screen: the Joker (Jack Nicholson), the Penguin (Danny DeVito), and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). Though Batman Returns is considered a sequel to Batman, the story doesn’t serve as one and doesn’t really hold a connection with it in terms of narrative. Instead, Batman Returns focused on a completely different story and conflict, once more with Burton’s signature gothic style.
Like many other Batman villains, the Penguin had some elaborate evil plans, and among those was to kill Batman (of course); and after an encounter with the Dark Knight, Catwoman decided to go after him as well, and formed an alliance with the Penguin. In an early draft of the script, these two also teamed up, but for very different reasons.
In Batman Returns, Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. the Penguin teams up with Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) so he helps him return to the surface in exchange of not letting Gotham City know about his corporate crimes. Schreck betrays the Penguin, and he carries on with his plan of revenge against Gotham and Batman. Meanwhile, Catwoman is on her own mission of revenge against Shreck after he tried to kill her and forms an alliance with the Penguin to kill Batman, though that partnership is later broken.
In an early draft of the story, Catwoman and the Penguin also teamed up, but for very different reasons. In it, their alliance was so they could find a hidden treasure, and this partnership also included the framing of Batman. It’s unknown what the treasure was and if the framing of Batman had to do with it, but the writers decided to change it to a tale about an evil mogul backing up a criminal’s bid for mayor. Though it sounds like a fun idea to have them looking for a treasure, it doesn’t sound fitting with the tone of Batman Returns, and the final choice was much better.
